RELIGION 
 
 WITHIN THE 
 
 BOUNDARY OF PURE REASON, 
 
 IMMANUEL KANT, 
 
 PROFESSOR OF LOGIC AND METAPHYSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF KONIGSBERG, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY 
 
 OF SCIENCES, BERLIN, &C. &C. &C. &C. 
 
 TRANSLATED OUT OF THE ORIGINAL GERMAN, 
 BY 
 
 J. W. SEMPLE, Advocate, 
 
 AUTHOR OF AN ENGLISH VERSION OF KANt's ETHICAL SYSTEM. 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 
 THOMAS^CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET 
 
 J. B. BAILLIERE, 219 REGENT STREET, LONDON ; 
 NESTLER & MELLE, HAMBURGH. 
 
 M.DCCC. XXXVIII. 
 

 
 ^<^^tJZ^tX^ 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 
 Printed by Thomas Allan & Co. 
 
 2G5 High Street. 
 
'3Z769 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Translator's Advertisement to the Reader, 
 
 KANT'S THEORY OF RELIGION. 
 
 Kant's Preface to the First Edition, 
 Second Edition, 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 OF INDWELLING SIN. 
 
 Exordium. Of the Principles of Good and Evil, . 17 
 
 Explanatory Scholion, ... 21 
 Section I. Of Mankind's Originary Predisposition toward 
 
 Good, ..... 26 
 
 Section II. Of the Bias to Evil in Human Nature, 30 
 Section III. Man is by nature evil, . , .35 
 
 Section IV. Of the Origin of Evil in Human Nature, 45 
 
 Geneva! Scholion. Of Divine Grace, . 51 
 
 BOOK 11. 
 
 OF THE ENCOUNTER BETWIXT THE GOOD AND THE EVIL 
 PRINCIPLE FOR THE DOMINION OVER MANKIND. 
 
 Exordium. On a certain Difference obtaining betwixt the 
 Ethic of the Stoa and the Ethic of the Church, . . 67 
 
 535 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 APOTOME I. 
 
 Page 
 Of the Title of the Good Principle to rule ovek 
 
 Mankind. 
 Section A. Imj)ersonated Idea of the Good Principle, 72 
 
 Section B. On the Objective Reality of the above Idea, 74 
 Section C. Difficulties standing in the way of the alleged 
 reality of the above Idea, together with their re- 
 solution, ..... 80 
 
 APOTOME II. 
 
 Of the Title of the Evil Principle to Rule over 
 
 Mankind, ..... 96 
 
 General Scholion. Of Miracles, . . . 103 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 OF THE OVERTHROW OF THE EVIL BY THE GOOD 
 PRINCIPLE. 
 
 Exordium. The thorough conquest of the Evil by the 
 Good Principle is only to be achieved by the coming and 
 founding of a Kingdom of God on Earth, . 115 
 
 APOTOME I. 
 
 Philosophical Account of the Victory of the Good 
 Principle. 
 
 Section I. Of the Ethical State of Nature, . 119 
 
 Section II. Mankind ought to quit their Ethical State of 
 Nature, in order to become members of an Ethic 
 Commonwealth, .... 121 
 
 Section III. The Idea of an Ethical Comnaonwealth is the 
 Idea of a People of God combined under Ethic 
 Laws, 124 
 
 Section IV. The Idea of a People of God is only to be rea- 
 lized by forming a Church, . . 127 
 
CONTENTS. V 
 
 Page 
 Section V. A Church is best founded on a Holy Writ, and 
 
 the thence arising Faith Ecclesiastical, . 130 
 
 Section VI. Ethical Science is the Supreme Interpreter, 
 and the only Infallible Expounder of all Ecclesias- 
 tical Creeds whatsoever, . . • 140 
 Section VII. When the Kingdom of God may be said to 
 
 be at hand, .... 148 
 
 APOTOME II. 
 
 Historical Account of the Founding of a Kingdom 
 
 OF THE Good Principle on Earth, . . . 163 
 General Scholion. Of Holy Mysteries, ... 183 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 OF RELIGION AND CLERIARCHY. 
 Exordium. Of Ecclesiastical Despotism, . . 199 
 
 APOTOME I. 
 
 Of the Religious Worship of the Deity, . 203 
 
 Section I. Of Christianity considered as Natural Religion, 208 
 Section II. Of Christianity considered as a Learned Re- 
 ligion, ..... 217 
 
 APOTOME II. 
 
 Of the Superstitious Worship of the Deity, 224 
 
 Section I. Of Delusions in Religion generally, . 225 
 
 Section II. Of the guard furnished by Ethic against all 
 
 Delusions in Religion, . . . 228 
 
 Section III. Of Cleriarchy and Sacerdotal Despotism, 234 
 Section IV. That Conscience is at all times her own 
 
 Guide, 251 
 
 General Scholion. Of Means of Grace, . . 259 
 
C. CORNELIUS TACITUS 
 
 De Mobibps Germanorum. 
 
 HaUD DEFUIT ACDENTIA GERMANICO: 8ED OBSTITIT OcEANCS 
 IN SE, 8IMUI. ATQUE IN HeRCULEM INQUrRI. MoX NEMO TENTAVIT. 
 SaNCTIUSQUE AC BEVERENTIUS VIStTJI, DE ACTIS DEORUM CREDERE 
 QUAM SCIRE. 
 
THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER. 
 
 During the six-and-forty years that Frederick 
 THE Great reigned over Prussia, his subjects enjoy- 
 ed unrestricted liberty of the press. But upon the 
 death of that illustrious monarch in 1786, and the ac- 
 cession of F. William II., a different order of affairs 
 began. An edict was published shortly after (in 1788), 
 greatly hampering, or even suppressing, freedom of de- 
 bate, especially in matters theological ; and this edict 
 had very nearly the effect of stifling Kant's work on 
 religion. Kant had sent the first book to the Edi- 
 tor of the Berlin Monthly Magazine, and this part 
 was allowed by the philosophical censor, Mr G. 
 R. Hillmer, to pass to the public, when it appeared 
 in April 1792. Book II. was forwarded to Berlin, 
 with the view of being published in some subsequent 
 number. Upon reading it, however, Mr Hillmer 
 considered the treatise theological, not philosophical, 
 and therefore sent it for inspection to Mr O. C. R. 
 Hermes, the theologic censor, who most unhesi- 
 tatingly refused his imprimatur, and took Book II. 
 
VIII THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER. 
 
 into custody, as illicitly poaching on the preserves of 
 theology. In Germany, the ancient universities pos- 
 sess several immunities and many important privileges 
 and jurisdictions of their own. Some of them have even 
 rights of appellate jurisdiction. To this latter class 
 belongs the university at Konigsberg ; and before the 
 university of KonigslJerg Kant resolved to bring his 
 case. He completed his Philosophical Theory of Re- 
 ligion, and sent it to the theological faculty, contend- 
 ing that the investigation did not fall under their 
 jurisdiction, as it was merely a philosophical specula- 
 tion upon theology. After mature deliberation, the 
 theological faculty of Konigsberg found that the vo- 
 lume was not one that could fall under their cogni- 
 zance, and remitted it to the philosophical faculty, 
 who at once sanctioned its publication. Thus a work 
 suppressed by the royal censorship at Berlin, was 
 printed notwithstanding in the same year at Konigs- 
 berg, with the express consent both of the theological 
 and philosophical faculties. 
 
 This account of the present volume I have thought 
 it necessary to prefix, to enable readers to understand 
 the allusions in the Preface, and also some expres- 
 sions in the text. The preposterous behaviour of 
 Mr Hermes furnishes us with a very satisfactory 
 scale by which to estimate the justness of the lash- 
 ing inflicted by Kant in Book IV. on churchmen 
 bigoted, superstitious, and despotic. It must be ad- 
 
THE TRANSLi\TOR TO THE READER. IX 
 
 m it ted, Hermes had aflPorded ample room for even a 
 severer reprimand. The pointed passage at p. 24-2, 
 where the Author complains of churchmen attempt- 
 ing to give the go-by at once to biblical learning and 
 to reason, — thinking that they need only to command, 
 but not convince, — I understand as a direct allusion 
 to Mr Hermes. 
 
 Touching the Treatise itself, the Germans hold 
 that this volume is the most important disquisition 
 that ever appeared upon religion generally, and 
 upon the Christian religion in particular ; an 
 opinion in which I think every person must concur, 
 whether he accept or decline tjie singularities and 
 originalities of Rationalism. That it concerns us 
 islanders to know the religious or quasi-religious 
 opinions entertained by our next-door neighbours on 
 the Continent, no sane man, I apprehend, can doubt. 
 Journeys are made to China and Hindostan to learn 
 the metaphysical and ethical speculations there pre- 
 valent. Even the books of Con-fu-tszee are trans- 
 lated, and deemed not unworthy of sifting comment. 
 How much more nearly are we called upon to study 
 opinions which, to use the words of Sir James Mac- 
 intosh, " have now exclusive possession of Europe to 
 " the north of the Rhine — have been welcomed by 
 " the French youth with open arms — have roused in 
 " some measure the languishing genius of Italy ; but 
 " are still little known, and unjustly estimated, by 
 
X THE TRAXSI-ATOn TO THE READER. 
 
 " the mere English reader ;"j — more especially when 
 we reflect that those opinions are the cherished and 
 valued sentiments of a race who, both by speech and 
 blood, are our nearest kinsfolk. 
 
 To contribute in some measure, however slender, 
 toward removing the ignorance so justly lamented by 
 the polished writer whose words I have quoted above, 
 is the humble aim of the few following sheets, as 
 well as of the volume which I previously ventured 
 to lay before the public. I have only yet farther, 
 before concluding, to thank my readers, both on this 
 and the other side of the Atlantic, for the very cour- 
 teous reception with**vhich they have deigned to coun- 
 tenance my labours. 
 
 Edinburgh^ \st November 1838. 
 
 f Prelim. Disscrtat. to 7tli cd. of Encyc. Brit. p. 412. 
 
KANT'S 
 THEORY OF RELIGION; 
 
 SHEWING, 
 
 IN FOUR BOOKS, 
 
 THE NECESSARY HARMONY AND IDENTITY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE NOTICES OF REASON 
 
 WITH THOSE 
 
 OF ANY POSSIBLE REVELATION 
 WHATSOEVER. 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Ethic, in so far as founded on the Idea of Humanity 
 as a free Agent, binding himself, by virtue of that very 
 Freedom, to an unconditionate Law of Reason, is by itself 
 complete and entire ; so that mankind neither requires the 
 idea of any Superior Person to enable him to investigate 
 his duty, nor does he need any incentive or spring to its 
 execution other than the law itself. At least it must be 
 his own fault if there exist any such want or need ; a de- 
 fect, however, quite without remedy from any foreign 
 sources ; since, whatsoever is not originated by himself 
 from his own freedom, cannot supply or make up the want 
 of his own morality. 
 
 A System of Ethics, therefore, needs no Religion, neither 
 objectively to aid man's will, nor subjectively, as respects 
 his ability, to aid his power ; but stands, by force of pure 
 practical reason, self-sufficient and independent : for, since 
 its decrees have ethical virtue to oblige by the bare form 
 of that universal legality wherewith all maxims must co- 
 incide, such formal fitness for law universal, being the su- 
 preme and unconditionate condition of the intent of all ac- 
 
 A 
 
2 author's preface. 
 
 tions whatsoever, it results that Ethic needs no material 
 determinator of choice, i. e. requires no ulterior end, either 
 to recognise what is duty, or to excite toward its execu- 
 tion, but, on the contrary, can and ought, in a question 
 regarding duty, to abstract from all ends whatsoever. To 
 take an instance, suppose I wish to know, if I should 
 (or can) speak truth in the witness-box, or re-deliver a 
 deposite intrusted to my care, then I require to make no 
 inquiry concerning any end or purpose which my e^^- 
 dence or re-dclivery may accomplish ; for he who in such 
 a case should cast about for some ulterior motive, would 
 show by doing so that he is a villain. 
 
 But although Ethics require no representation of an 
 end, as a condition antecedent to the determination of the 
 will, yet it is possible that it may have a necessary refer- 
 ence to an end ; not, indeed, as the groundwork, but as 
 the sequent of maxims adopted in harmony with the law : 
 for no determination of will can exist in man entirely de- 
 void of all reference to ends, since no volition can re- 
 main without effect; the representation of which eflFect 
 will no doubt not be the determinator of the choice, nor 
 yet an end extant in the formal intent how to act ; but 
 which effect must be adopted by the will, as an end emerg- 
 ing in consequence of its determination by the law, apart 
 from which a will could not satisfy itself; for, being left 
 destitute of every, whether objectively or subjectively, as- 
 signed end, in an intended action, the will would be com- 
 manded how,hut not wkitkcrwards, it had to act. Thus, for 
 morality no end is required, only the law, which is the 
 formal condition of the use of freedom ; but Ethic gives 
 birth to an end : nor can reason remain indifferent to the 
 question, What is to be the result of all her right 
 
AUTHOR S PREFACE. ^ 
 
 ACTING ? toward which final result as a goal (even sup- 
 posing that goal beyond our reach) she might direct all 
 her actions, as toward a common centre. 
 
 This end is no more than the idea of an object which 
 comprises in itself, 1. The formal condition of the ends 
 we ought to have (duty) ; and, 2. Also the thereby con- 
 ditioned aggregate of the ends we actually have (the hap- 
 piness proportioned to our observance of the former) ; that 
 is, in other words, the idea of the Summum Bonum, to 
 realize which best possible world {Summum Bonum), we 
 must postulate a Supreme, Moral, Most Holy, and All- 
 mighty Being, as he who is alone able to unite these two 
 elements. But this idea is practically not void, for it aids 
 the need we feel to figure to ourselves some last end as 
 the final scope and aim of our exertions ; — the absence of 
 which end would be an impediment to ethical determina- 
 tions. But the main point observable is, that the idea 
 takes its rise from Ethic, and is not its groundwork ; for to 
 adopt this end, pre-requires ethic principles in the person 
 who does so. It is therefore nowise indifferent to the mo- 
 ralist whether he frame to himself the notion of a final 
 scope and chief end of all things or not (to harmonize 
 with which does not increase the number of his duties, 
 but supplies a common point where all his exertions are 
 ultimately to terminate and coincide) ; for it is only by 
 force of this idea, that objective practical reality can be 
 given to our notion of the conjungibility of the formal 
 symmetry of actions originated by freedom, with the mate- 
 rial symmetry of objects in the physical system; a con- 
 junction which is an indispensable postulate of reason. 
 Let us figure to ourselves an Intelligent, a reverer of the 
 moral law, revolving in thought what kind of world he 
 
4 AUTHOR S PREFACE. 
 
 would create if guided singly by practical reason (a co- 
 gitation man can hardly avoid), of which world he him- 
 self should be a part; then he would not only choose (sup- 
 posing a wish only were left to him) just such a world as 
 that ethical idea of the summum bonum brings along with 
 it, but he would likewise will (had he the power) such 
 a world into existence, because the moral law ordains that 
 he effectuate the highest good possible by his exertions, 
 even although he would see himself in great danger of 
 losing his own personal h.appiness, by the hazard he might 
 run, of not being found adequate to that idea to which, as 
 a condition, reason restrains the distribution of happiness. 
 This judgment would be impartial as if passed by ano- 
 ther, and yet his reason would force him to recognise it 
 as his own too ; by all which the Intelligent would evince 
 his ethical need, to figure to himself a final or last end, as 
 the sequent of his duties. 
 
 * Ethic issues, then, inevitably in Religion, by extend- 
 ing itself to the idea of an Omnipotent Moral Lawgiver, 
 in whose will, that is the end of the creation, which at 
 the same time can and ought to be likewise mankind's 
 chief end.* 
 
 • The position there is a God, consequently there is a Summum 
 Bonum, in the universe, if it as a belief is to rest on pure morals, is a 
 synthetic a priori proposition, which, although adopted singly for a prac- 
 tical behoof, extends beyond the notion duty (which notion supposes no 
 matter of choice, only its formal (negative) laws), and consequently cannot 
 be evolved analytically from it : coincidence with the mere Idea of a 
 Moral Lawgiver of Mankind, is no doubt identic with the ethical con- 
 ception duty; and to this extent a proposition ordaining such coinci- 
 dence were atiah/tic : but to assume ms existence, says more than is ex- 
 pressed by the bare idea of the i)ossibility of such an object. The Lev to 
 the unfolding of this matter, I can only here sketch in skeleton, with- 
 out applying it to the intricacies of the wards. 
 
 An end, or aim willed, is always the object of affection, i.e. of 
 
AUTHOR S PREFACE. 5 
 
 If Ethic recognise in the Holiness of its Law an object 
 of the greatest veneration, it doth fartlier, when on the 
 
 immediate desire to possess something by means of an action, in the same 
 waj as the law is always an object of reverence : an objective end 
 (j. e. one whicli we ought to have), is one objected to the mind (as such 
 by reason). That end, which is the indispensable and sufficient condi- 
 tion of all other ends, is the last end or scope : proper happiness is the 
 subjective end of finite intelligents (wliich end all have by force of their 
 sensitive economy, and of which end it were contradictory to say that 
 they OUGHT to have it), and all propositions which rest on this ground 
 are synthetic, and a posteiiori. Jiut that every person should make the 
 HIGHEST GOOD possible in the world, his last end and aim, is a synthe- 
 tic practical proposition a priori ; and further, is an objective!3' practical 
 one, proposed by reason ; for it is a position which goes beyond the con- 
 ception of the duty to be performed in this world, and superadds to it a 
 sequent, i. e. an effect not invoWed or contained in the moral law, and 
 which, consequently, cannot be evolved analytically from it. The law 
 commands categorically, be the effect what it may ; nay, it necessitates 
 man to abstract altogether from such effect, when it calls for any given 
 act ; and does, by this very circumstance, make duty an object of the 
 highest veneration, that it assigns neither end nor scope which might re- 
 commend it, or become an incentive towards the performance of duty. 
 All men would find mobile enough, in the law, if they adhered (as they 
 should) to the decrees of pure Reason. AVhat need have they to know whac 
 issue of their exertions the course of things may bring about ? for them it 
 is enough that they have done their duty, whether all things expire with 
 this earthly existence, and although happiness and desert never coincide. 
 It happens, however, to be one of the limits put to man's reason, that he 
 always casts about for some effect resulting from his actions, in order to 
 find in this effect an end and aim such as may prove the purity of his 
 will, which end, although last in execution, was, notwithstanding, first 
 in his intention. In this end, even when assigned by reason, mankind 
 seeks something that he can love. Consequently the law, which be- 
 gets REVERENCE Only, and cannot recognise the need or want of the lat- 
 ter, does nevertheless extend itself for the behoof of this want, so as to 
 adopt the ethical scope of reason among its determinators, i. e. the posi- 
 tion, " MAKE the highest good possible in the wori,d by tht 
 EXERTIONS, THY LAST END AND SCOPE," is a Synthetic a priori propo- 
 sition, introduced by the moral law itself, although, by doing so, reason 
 extends itself beyond its law ; and the synthetical extension is possible, 
 by the law's being applied to that physical predisposition of man's na- 
 
b AUTHOR S PREFACE. 
 
 grade of religion, it exhibits as an object of Adoration — 
 a Supreme Cause, executive and upholder of the Law — 
 enrobe itself with majesty, and appear in state. But every 
 thing, even the most exalted, dwindles to insignificance 
 in the hands of man, when its idea is applied to use. Even 
 that which can only be truly venerated, in so far as the 
 reverence bestowed on it is free, is necessitated to accom- 
 modate itself to such shapes and forms as co-active laws 
 ordain ; and that which offers itself to the free unreserved 
 critique of every man, is constrained to yield to a cri- 
 tique par force, i. e. to a censorship. 
 
 Nevertheless, since the commandment, " Obey the 
 Government !" is also of moral obligation ; and since its 
 observance may, as indeed may that of every other duty, 
 be reckoned under the head of religion ; it is but seemly 
 that a treatise devoted to the investigation of this latter 
 idea, should itself exemplify this ordained obedience — a 
 thing not to be accomplished by observing merely one 
 single statutable decree of the state, but only by devoting 
 a united reverence to them all. Now, a Theologian who 
 sits in judgment on a book may be invested with a post 
 where he is merely intrusted with the cure of souls, or 
 
 ture, whereby he is forced to think an end out of, and beyond, the 
 law (which physical property makes man an object of experience), and is, 
 in fact (like the speculative synthetic propositions a priori), only thut pos- 
 sible, viz. by containing the a priori principle, whereby we know the ma- 
 terial conditions of freedom as exhibited in practice, so far forth as expe- 
 rience and observation, exhibiting in their results the effects of morality, 
 procure objective though only practical reality to the idea morality, as a 
 causality acting in upon the world, liut if the rigid observance of the 
 law is to be considered as the cause of the production of that end, the 
 Summtnn Bunum, then must we (man's power being inadequate to that 
 effect) assume an Omnipotent Moral Being as Governor of the World, 
 luuk-r whose Providence this conjunction of felicity with desert is effect- 
 ed, i. r. Ethic issuei necessarily in Religion. 
 
AUTHOR S PREFACE. 7 
 
 else witli one, where lie is also concerned with the ad- 
 vancement of the sciences : the former judge is only a 
 clergyman, the second is at the same time one of the 
 learned. As a member of a learned institution {caUed a 
 University), where the sciences are nurtured, and guard- 
 ed against hurt, it is incumbent upon the latter to curb 
 the excessive Censorship of the former, so far, at least, as 
 to prevent the sciences from receiving any damage. Sup- 
 pose, now, that both censors are Biblical Theologians ; 
 then will to the latter, as member of that Academic Fa- 
 culty which has pre-eminently to deal with University 
 Theology, belong the right of appellate jurisdiction : for, 
 so far forth as the cure of souls is at stake, both being 
 clergymen, are equally concerned ; but as for the inte- 
 rest of the sciences, the Theological Teacher at the Uni- 
 versity has a yet farther and peculiar province to admi- 
 nister. If this rule be set aside, then we shall ultimately 
 come to that pass (which in the days of Galileo really 
 happened), that the Biblical Theologian, in order to 
 humble the pride of the sciences, and to save himself the 
 trouble of learning them, will, by a crusading ini'oad 
 against physical astronomy, ancient geology, or whatever 
 else the science may be (just like those savage hordes 
 who, to defend themselves against the dreaded attacks of 
 an enemy, lay waste beforehand whole territories around 
 them), endeavour to blockade every outlet against the 
 forthcoming operations of the human understanding. 
 
 Moreover, in the field of the sciences there stands over 
 against biblical theology, a philosophical theology, as a 
 good intrusted to a particular faculty. Now, so long as 
 this branch of philosophic speculation remains " within 
 THE BOUNDS OF NAKED REASON," and uses toward the 
 
8 author's preface. 
 
 confirmation and establishment of its positions, history, 
 languages, the old writings of various nations — the Bible 
 not excepted, — without, however, attempting to intrude 
 its opinions into biblical theolog}', or to alter those pub- 
 lic doctrines which stand under the privileged guardian- 
 ship of the clergy ; then must it have full freedom to ex- 
 tend itself as far as its scientific grasp can reach : and 
 should it perchance even happen that the philosopher had 
 wandered beyond his boundary, and invaded unawares the 
 domain of the biblical theologian, then would this last, in 
 his capacity of clergyman, be entitled to subject the in- 
 truder to his cognizance. But were it at all doubtful 
 whether or not the due boundary really had been over- 
 stepped, and question arose if such trespass actually had 
 been committed, whether by writing or by any spoken 
 lecture, then would the supreme or appellate censorship 
 devolve on that biblical theologian alone, who might be 
 likewise member of an academical faculty; for then 
 only would he have the ulterior interests of the common- 
 wealth to study, — holding his appointment from the state, 
 in order that he might attend to the sciences, and their 
 growth. 
 
 Unquestionably, in such a ease as is here supposed, the 
 Censorship would devolve, in the last resort, on the Theo- 
 logical, not on the Philosophical Faculty; for the former 
 alone can claim a monopoly of certain doctrines, whereas 
 the latter always leaves its tenets open to general debate, 
 and can consequently never complain that any new specu- 
 lation diminishes the traffic of the guild. Any doubt, how- 
 ever, as to a territorial invasion, is, notwithstanding the 
 approximation of the two doctrines, and apprehended tres- 
 pass on the part of Philosophical Theolog)', very easily 
 
author's preface. 9 
 
 removed, when we consider that the mischief arises, not 
 from the Philosopher's borrowing any thing from Bibli- 
 cal Theology, but from his thrusting speculations upon 
 Divinity, whereby this last is bent to ends foreign to her 
 established constitution. Thus no one would ever think of 
 saying, that Teachers of International Law, when citing 
 classical passages or formulae out of the Code or Digest, 
 for the behoof of a philosophical theory of their subject, 
 are guilty of invading or violating the majesty of the 
 Corpus Juris, although those passages be accommodated 
 and understood in a sense slightly varying from that in 
 which Justinian and Ulpian may have employed them ; 
 nor could they, with any colour of reason, be accused of 
 tampering with, or trespassing on, the Civil Law, provided 
 they did not insist that the Bench and Bar should receive 
 their gloss as the strict and proper meaning of the words. 
 For, were not each faculty entitled to borrow occasionally 
 from the other, then, conversely, we might accuse the 
 Biblical Theologian, or the Statutable Jurist, of making 
 innumerable inroads into the territory of philosophy (see- 
 ing that neither can dispense with reason, nor, where a 
 scientific pre-exercitation is required, with philosophy), 
 and bearing hence treasures for their own use. And yet 
 were the first-named faculty to aim at having nothing to 
 do with reason or philosophy in religious matters, soon 
 would it appear which party suffered the greater damage; 
 for a religion which should declare and wage an uncom- 
 promising war against reason, must, in the long run, be 
 worsted. I would even venture to ask, if it were not ad- 
 visable that the student should, after completing his stu- 
 dies in the Hall, hear a course on the Philosophy of Bib- 
 lical Theology, or, indeed, of any other Theology, in or- 
 
10 author's preface. 
 
 tier to give the last finish to his preparation for his work? 
 In truth, the sciences advance only when elaborated se- 
 parately, so far forth as each constitutes a whole by itself, 
 and when subsequently an architectonic survey is made 
 in order to arrange and display them in systematic har- 
 mony. It is immaterial whether the Biblical Theologian 
 agree or differ with the Philosopher, and so deem it need- 
 ful to confute his tenets, provided that he only hear and 
 know them ; for thus alone can he become thoroughly 
 fore-armed against all difficulties, open or latent, strown 
 by the philosopher in his path ; whereas, to conceal ob- 
 jections, or which, if possible, is worse, to decry them as 
 impious, is a wretched stratagem, that can only fail : 
 while, on the other hand, to weld both parts together, 
 and only occasionally exhibit an amalgam of philosophy, 
 betrays want of intellectual depth, and brings the public 
 at length to such a pass that they cannot well di^dne where 
 Theology is going, or what it is about. 
 
 Of the following four books, — where, in order to make 
 perceptible the relation obtaining betwixt religion and hu- 
 manity, affected as it is, in part with good, in part with 
 evil, predispositions, I have represented the Good and the 
 Evil Principles as two self-subsistingcauses,operatingout- 
 side of, and bearing in upon man, — the first has already 
 appeared in the Berlin Montlily Magazine for April 1792. 
 I was, liowever, under the necessity of republishing it now, 
 on account of its intimate connection with the remaining 
 three, which, indeed, contain the development and appli- 
 cation of the notions therein set abroach. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 In this edition no alterations have been made ; only the 
 misprints, and some few faulty expressions, have been 
 amended. One or two additional notes have been sub- 
 joined to the text. They are indicated by a star, thus*. 
 Those in the old edition bore a cross f . 
 
 Touching the title of the book (Religion within the 
 Bounds of Naked Reason, for it seems I have been ac- 
 cused of some latent design), I beg leave to say in expla- 
 nation, that since a Revelation may comprehend inter 
 alia as its object-matter the doctrines of Natural Reli- 
 gion, while, conversely, this last cannot possibly contain 
 the historical details of the former, it may be permitted us 
 to regard the one as a larger sphere of belief, containing 
 within it the other as a less (J,, e. as orbs concentric, con- 
 sequently not without and outside of one another). With- 
 in the bounds of this last — the smaller sphere — may the 
 philosopher, as an inquirer into pure reason, proceeding 
 singly upon principles a prio?i, confine himself; where, 
 consequently, he must abstract from all experience and 
 observation. Leaving this position, he may make the 
 
12 AUTHOR S PREFACE 
 
 farther experiment of beginning at any supposed revela- 
 tion (abstracting in the meanwhile from pure natural Re- 
 ligion, as an independent and self-subsisting system), and 
 of holding it, as a historical system, bit by bit, up to the 
 moral notions, for the purpose of comparison ; in order 
 to see if it do not lead back eventually to the self-same 
 system of Natural Theology, which, though incomplete in 
 itself in a theoretical point of view (for it would require 
 to embrace and contain a tcchnico-practical part, for the 
 purpose of instruction), is, nevertheless, for every ethico- 
 practical purpose, complete, and quite sufficient for reli- 
 gion properly so called ; which, as a notion a priori (re- 
 maining after abstraction has been made from every a pos- 
 teriori part), has significancy only when understood in this 
 reference. Should this turn out really to be the case, 
 then may it be said that reason and revelation are not 
 only in harmony, but identic ; so that whoever should, 
 under guidance of ethical notions, follow the one, would 
 find himself eventually at the same goal with the other. 
 And were it not so, then would there exist either two re- 
 ligions in the same person, which is absurd, or there would 
 be OJie religion and one ceremonial worship; and since 
 the latter is not, like religion, an end-in-itself, but has 
 value only as a mean, then they might, no doubt, like 
 heterogeneous elements, be for a while confounded, but 
 would, as oil from water, soon become separate — pure 
 ethic, the religion of nature, floating above, while the ce- 
 remonials are precipitated. 
 
 That this union, or attempt to bring it about, is a task 
 quite allowed to one who makes a philosophical scrutiny 
 into Religion, and no inroad into the province of Bib- 
 lical Theology, was shown in the preface to the first edi- 
 
TO THE SECOND EDITION. 13 
 
 tion. Since then, I have seen my assertion quoted by the 
 celebrated Michaelis in his Morals (Part. I. p. 5-11), 
 — a man equally conversant with either faculty. In fact, 
 this principle pervades his whole work ; and yet the Theo- 
 logical Faculty have not complained, so far as I know, of 
 finding in his book any thing prejudicial to their rights. 
 
 Writings by the learned, whether named or innominate, 
 arrive so tardily at this farther corner of the globe, that 
 I have not been enabled to notice in this second edition, 
 the reviews which I understand have been passed upon 
 this my Philosophical Theory of Revelation. It was my 
 anxious wish to have replied to the celebrated Dr Storr of 
 Tiibirgen, who, in his " Annotationes qucedam Theologicoi^^ 
 &c., has subjected my opinions to a very sifting scrutiny, 
 conducted at the same time with such extreme attention 
 and candour as to have earned my warmest thanks. Some 
 intention of answering him I even yet entertain, but ven- 
 ture not to promise a rejoinder, on account of the impedi- 
 ments which gi-eat age now throws in my way, especially 
 vi'hen engaged in elaborating abstract ideas. One Critique^ 
 namely, that published in " iS/b. 29 of the Greifswald New 
 Critical Reporter" I may discuss with that curt brevity 
 wherewith my Reviewer has handled me. According to 
 his judgment, the present treatise is merely an attempt to 
 solve, for my own satisfaction, a self-proposed problem, 
 
 viz. *' How, UPON GROUNDS OF PURE THEORETICAL AND 
 PRACTICAL REASON, ARE THE NOTIONS AND POSITIONS 
 CONTAINED IN THE ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH CREED 
 
 POSSIBLE ?" " This, consequently," says he, " is an 
 investigation wherewith they cannot be concerned who 
 know his (Kant's) system as little as they care about it. 
 The question, in fine, is for them inexistent." — Upon this I 
 
14 AUTHOR S PREFACE. 
 
 remark — there are needed for comprehending the sub- 
 stance of the present book, only the most ordinary notices 
 of Ethic, without the slightest acquaintance with the " in- 
 quiry INTO THE WILL," and still less without any re- 
 ference to the Critique of Speculative Reason. True, I 
 sometimes speak of virtue, when understood as a readiness 
 in performing actions outwardly in harmony with the 
 law, as virtus phcEnomenon, and contradistinguish it from 
 virtue as a steadfast moral mindedness or intent, of exe- 
 cuting those acts out of duty, called virtus noumenon ; 
 but then these expressions are used merely for the sake 
 of scholastic uniformity. The thing indicated by those 
 terms is stated daily in every child's catechism or sermon, 
 and, be the vocables what they may, is easily understood. 
 Would to heaven as much could be said in praise of the 
 mysteries touching the Godhead, reckoned by the church 
 integi'ant parts of our religion, which, as were they on a 
 level with every one's common sense, are thrust into ca- 
 techisms for the young; although eventually they must, 
 by a metempsychosis, pass into the form of moral notions, 
 if they are ever to become generally intelligible. 
 
 Konigsberg, 26//e Jamutry ] 794. 
 
HARMONY AND IDENTITY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NOTICES OF REASON WITH THOSE OF 
 ANY POSSIBLE REVELATION, 
 
 SHEWN IN FOUR BOOKS. 
 
 BOOK L 
 
 OF INDWELLING SIN. 
 
BOOK I. 
 
 ON THE RADICAL EVIL OF HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 EXORDIUM. 
 
 That the wokld lieth in wickedness, is a complaint 
 as ancient as any historic record, or even as that still 
 older VOLUME, the fictions of the poets — nay, it is equally 
 old with that oldest of all figments, the fabulous mythi- 
 cal religions of priestcraft. All three concur in giving 
 the world at its outset a good beginning : be it a golden 
 age — a life in Paradise — or one still more happy — commu- 
 nion with Celestials. But this welfare speedily disappears. 
 A lapse into evil immediately hurries mankind from bad 
 to worse with accelerated speed.* So that we now {which 
 m)w^ however, is as old as either history or fable) live in 
 the latter times. The last day and destruction of the 
 world lie even at the door, so much so that Siva, the De- 
 stroyer and future Judge of the earth, is already in some 
 parts of Hindustan, worshipped as the God to whom all 
 power in heaven and earth has been delegated; Vishnu 
 having in fatigue thrown up, some centuries ago, the post 
 
 * ^tas parentum, pejor avis, tulit 
 Nos nequiores, mox daturos 
 Progeniem vitiosiorem— Hohat. 
 
18 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 of governor of the world, which in the beginning he re- 
 ceived from the Creator Brahma. 
 
 A contrary opinion has obtained in modern times. It 
 is, however, far less prevalent, being confined mainly to 
 philosophers and pedagogues, viz. that the world is moving 
 in the opposite direction, being constantly, though imper- 
 ceptibly, on the advance from bad to better. At least it is 
 contended that the predispositions of human nature are ori- 
 ginally so constituted as to tend that way. But this as- 
 sumption was certainly never taken from experience and 
 observation ; for, so long as question is made of moral 
 GOOD AND EVIL, and not merely of the refinements of civi- 
 lization, authentic history in every age declares against it. 
 Probably, therefore, it is only a good-natured hypothe- 
 sis, first started by Seneca, and handed down from him 
 through intervening Moralists to Rousseau, in order by 
 its means, to goad mankind on, to the unwearied culture 
 and development of every latent germ, that may perchance 
 one day bring forth good fruit. And, indeed, since man 
 comes into the world usually hale and sound in body at 
 his birth, it is not easy to imagine why the inner man — 
 his soul — should not be deemed by parity of reason just 
 as healthy. Upon this view, nature herself is waiting and 
 ever ready to assist the efforts made for forwarding our 
 moral growth. " Sanabilibus agrotamus malis, nosque in 
 RECTUM GENITOS, tiatura si sajiari velimus, adjuvat" So 
 Seneca of this matter, and so others. 
 
 Since, however, nothing is more likely than that both 
 poets and philosophers are in the wrong, it would at once 
 occur to any bystander to inquire, if no medium could 
 be found betwixt the two extremes, and if there were not 
 room to sav, that mankind as a race are neither good nor 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 19 
 
 bad ; or otherwise, that man is as much the one as the other, 
 being in part good and in part evil. But a person is call- 
 ed evil, not merely because he performs actions that are 
 bad, i. e. illegal ; but only then, when his actions are of 
 such a stamp, as to enable and entitle us to conclude upon 
 the evil maxims of his will. Now, though experience and 
 observation may make us acquainted with actions repug- 
 nant to the law, and may even {at least in our own case) 
 teach knowledge of illegal acts, perpetrated with the 
 full consciousness that they are so ; still the regulating- 
 maxims of the will are no object of possible experience 
 (not always even the maxims of one's own will); whence, 
 by consequence, the judgment, that an agent is an evil 
 PERSON, never can, with certainty, be rested on experience 
 and observation. We must, therefore, from sundry, or 
 even one evil act, done with the consciousness of its being 
 so, be able to conclude a priori upon an evil maxim giving 
 it birth ; and from thence yet farther, upon a general 
 ground of every particular morally-evil maxim extant in 
 the thinking Subject ; which universal ground is again it- 
 self a maxim, before we can deem ourselves entitled to 
 predicate of a person that he is by nature evil. 
 
 That no occasion of stumbling may be furnished by the 
 word NATURE, which, when used to signify the Physical 
 System, is the veriest anti-part of a ground of acting out 
 of freedom, and wherewith the predicates good and evil 
 would stand in open contradiction : it is to be observed, 
 that by the nature of man we here mean only that subjec- 
 tive ground of the use of his freedom precedent to any act 
 falling under sense — let this ground be what it may. Far- 
 ther, this subjective ground must be figured to be an act 
 OF FREEDOM ; for if otherwise, neither the use nor abuse 
 
20 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 made by man of his free clioice could be imputed to him 
 as his deed ; and his indwelling good or evil would not 
 be moral. Consequently the ground of moral evil can lie 
 in no OBJECT determinative of the will through the in- 
 tervention of an appetite ; neither can it lie in any physi- 
 cal instinct, but only in a rule^ i. e. in a maxim self-ap- 
 pointed by choice to its own freedom. But what now 
 may be the subjective ground of adopting such a maxim, 
 and discarding its contrary, is an ulterior question, that 
 cannot be resolved. For were this last ground, con- 
 cerning which question is made, no longer a general 
 maxim, but a mere physical determination, then would 
 the use of our freedom be explicable upon mere natural 
 causes, which, however, is repugnant to the very idea of a 
 supersensible causality. When, therefore, it is said, " Man- 
 kind is by Nature Good," or " He is by Nature Evil," 
 those positions merely mean " he contains within him an 
 unsearchable last ground* of adopting good or of adopting 
 bad maxims;" which ground, unfathomable even by his 
 own reason, pervades and tinges so universally the species, 
 as to serve for an exponent whei'eby to indicate the cha- 
 racter of the whole race. 
 
 We shall also farther say, of one or other of those ethic 
 characters, and that, too, with the view of distinguishing 
 
 • That the last subjective ground of adopting moral maxims must be 
 inscrutable (by man), is already self-evident from this consideration, viz. 
 that since the ir appointment is free, the ground of such a choice can- 
 not be sought in any physical spring. It can lie only in a maxim. 
 Now, since this maxim must have its ground, and since out of and be- 
 yond maxims no deteuminatives of fiee choice can be assigned, it is 
 manifest that we may recede backwards in iiiJiHitum along this subjective 
 chain, witliout ever urrivi^^' at the last link, i.e. without ever fathom- 
 ing a maxim's absolutely lust ground. 
 
ALONG WITH THE PKINCIPLE OF GOOD. 21 
 
 mankind from other possibly-existing intelligents, that 
 with him it is congenite. Notwithstanding, nature is not 
 chargeable with his guilt (should man be evil), nor with 
 his good-desert (should he turn out good) : for the man 
 himself is at all times the sole author of his character ; 
 but, because the last ground whereby we appoint to our- 
 selves our maxims, seeing that they must always emanate 
 from our free choice, never can be an event given in expe- 
 rience and observation, upon that account it is that man's 
 good or evil (as a good or evil last ground of adopting this 
 or that maxim in harmony with, or militating against the 
 law) is said to be born with him, so far forth as at his 
 birth it is already a ground extant, and precedent of all 
 experimental exercise of his freedom. And since this is 
 the case, even from the earliest acts of youth backward to 
 his birth, this ground must be cogitated as co-existing 
 with and in man, even at his birth, — which, however, does 
 not mean that his birth is the cause of it. 
 
 EXPLANATORY SCHOLION. 
 
 At the bottom of the two just stated hypotheses there 
 lies a disjunctive proposition, " man is by nature either 
 MORALLY GOOD OR MORALLY EVIL ;" and it will imme- 
 diately occur to every one to ask if this disjunction be 
 correct ? Some one might say, that there is room for 
 maintaining that " man is by nature neither one nor 
 other;" and a third party might contend that " he is 
 both at once," namely, good in some points, and in 
 others evil. Experience and observation would even seem 
 to declare for this intermediary betwixt the extremes. 
 
22 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 Ethic, however, admits only unwillingly of moral media, 
 either in actions or in characters : since, were such ambi- 
 guity to prevail, all maxims would be in danger of losing 
 both fixity and precision. Those who profess severer senti- 
 ments are usually called rigorists, a name which, though 
 intended to convey censure, does in fact praise: their 
 adversaries are styled latitudinarians, who again are 
 divided into latitudinarians of neutrality and of coalition. 
 We may call the one indifferentists ; the other syn- 
 
 CRETISTS.* 
 
 The answer to that disjunctive interrogatory, if it is to 
 fall out agreeably to a rigorous f method of deciding, bot- 
 
 * If GOOD = a, then is its contradictory the not-good ; and this 
 again results either from a mere absence of a ground impelling towards 
 good = 0, or from tlie positive presence of a ground the antipodes of 
 good = — a. In this latter case the not-good may be spoken of as posi- 
 tive evil. ("With respect to pleasure and pain, there can be assigned an 
 intermediate state, so that pleasure = a pain = — a, and that state 
 wherein neither is felt, viz. a state' of indifference, = 0.) This would 
 also be the case in ethics, were not the law itself the spring of will ; for 
 then the moral good [}. e. the harmony of the will with the law) would 
 be = a, the not-good = ; which last, however, would only be the con- 
 sequence of the want of any moral spring = a x 0. But because the 
 law is a moral spi'ing = a, it follows that = the want of the will's har- 
 mony with tlie law is the effect of a contrary and opposite determina- 
 tion of choice, i. c. of a counteracting of the law = — a; that is, can only 
 happen through a positively evil will. Wherefore, betwixt a good and 
 !in evil vioral-mindcdness ( inward principle of maxims), according to which 
 an act's morality must be judged, no intermediate cast or bent of volition 
 can be found. A morally-indifferent action ( Adiaphoron Morale) would 
 be an act brought about simply by physic causes, and would stand, upon 
 that account, unrelated to the INIoral Law as the liUW of Freedom. An 
 ACT of this sort would not be a deed ; and regarding it there could 
 neither bo command nor phohibition, nor yet i'ehmission. 
 
 -)• Schiller, in that exquisite masterpiece '' on Grace and Dig- 
 nity," disapproves highly of my vigorous rej)rcsentation of obligation, 
 and maintains (vol. xvii. p. 221-4, 1«20) that such tenets, if acted on, 
 can only legct manners fitted for the cloister. l?iit since I find that we 
 
ALONG WITH THE PKINCIPLE OF GOOD. 23 
 
 toius itself on this remark, which is of the most vital mo- 
 ment in ethics, viz. that the freedom of the will is en- 
 dowed with this peculiar property, that it never can he 
 determined hy any spring to any act, except in so far as 
 
 are at one on every other point, even in the most weighty principles, I 
 am unwilling to allow that there can be here any discrepancy, provided 
 only we can mutually understand each other. I at once admit that I 
 cannot associate grace with the dignity of the Idea Duty ; for this 
 idea imports co-action, i. e. unconditionate necessitation, wherewith the 
 ease of grace is quite inconjungible. The INIajesty of the Law (like that 
 on Sinai) inspires aave (not dread that daunts, nor yet charms that 
 invite), i, e. ueveuence felt by a subject towards his Governor; which, 
 however, in the present case, since the Commander lies within our- 
 selves, is A FEELING OF THE SUBLIMITY OF OUR OWN DESTINY, trans- 
 fixing and transporting the mind far more intensely than any beauty. 
 And yet virtue, i. e. the well-grounded intent of invariably discharging 
 all one's duties, is productive of most beneficial effects, more so than all 
 that nature or art in the world can accomplish ; and soTair, or even glori- 
 ous, a portraiture of humanity admits very well of being accompanied by the 
 Graces, who, so long as mere duty is concerned, stand revei'ently aside. 
 When regard is had to the physical grace wherewithal virtue would en- 
 robe the world, were it universally pursued ; then does moral legislative 
 reason call on fancy and the powers of sense for aid. But it is only after 
 having overcome the Hydra that Hercules can attend the Muses — a toil 
 from which the graceful sisters shrink. So that, were the question put, 
 what ^esthetic character, or, as it were, what temfeuament be- 
 LONGS TO VIRTUE ? — valiant, and by consequence joyous, or anxious 
 and dejected? scarce any answer would be needed. The latter slavish 
 tone of soul never can be where there is not a latent hatred of the Law ; 
 and the joyous heart, in discharging duty (not complacency in recog- 
 nising it), betokens that the virtuous sentiments are genuine, nay, is 
 the test that piety is real — piety consisting not in the self-reproachivgx 
 of a ■whining sinner (a State of mind I look upon as exceedingly equivocal, 
 and which is for the most part the man's inward upbraidings at having 
 erred against a dictate of prudential expediency), but in the steadfast 
 unfaltering determination to make the matter better in all time to come ; 
 and this purpose gaining in life and force by the constancy wherewith the 
 ethical ascetic knows he has adhered to his predeterminate resolves, must 
 needs beget a joyful disposition, apart from which no one can be certain 
 that he loves the moral good, i, e. has adopted it into his maxims. 
 
24 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 MANKIND HAVE HIMSELF ADOPTED, AND TAKEN UP THAT 
 
 SPRING INTO HIS MAXIM, i. €. have transformed it into a 
 universal rule, according to which he wills to conduct 
 himself. In no other manner can a spring, be it what 
 it may, consist with the absolute spontaneity of a free 
 choice. Again, the moral law is, — our own reason being 
 judge, — itself the originary spring, and whoso makes it his 
 maxim, is mo rally good. But if, notwithstanding, the law 
 does not determine a person's choice, then some contrary 
 spring must influence the will; and since, by hypothesis, 
 this can only happen by a man's adopting this spring, 
 and along with it its necessary effect, viz. the swerving from 
 the Law, into his maxim (in which latter case the man is 
 evil), it follows that his inward mindedness to observe or 
 depart from the law is never in a state of equilibrious in- 
 difference, and that mankind never can be neither good 
 nor evil. 
 
 Neither can man be in some points good, and at the 
 same time in others morally evil. For is he in any one 
 point morally good, then has he made the Moral Law his 
 maxim ; but should he at the same time be in some other 
 points bad, then would, — since the Moral Law is but one 
 and yet universal, — the maxim referring to it, be at once 
 a general and a particular maxim, which is a contradic- 
 tion.* 
 
 • The ]Moral Philosophers of AntiquiU', who nearly exhausted every 
 question that can be raised in ethic, did not forget to discuss the branches 
 of the above dilemma. The first query was worded thus : " Must vir. 
 TUE BE LEARNED ?" i. e. Is man by nature indifferent alike to vice or itt 
 opposite 9 the second, "Can there be more than one virtue?" 
 i. e. Can virtue subsist fragmcntarihj in the mind, and man be virtuous and 
 vicious by halves? Both were denied with peremptory and rigoristical 
 precision, and rightly ; for they considered virtue as it is in the idea of 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 25 
 
 To have one or other of those sentiments, as a con- 
 nate property by nature, does not mean to say that the 
 man vvlio entertains them is not their author, i. e. has not 
 himself acquired them, but signifies that they have not 
 been acquired in time, so that he must be regarded as one 
 or other of them, from youth up continually. The 
 turn of mind (called its sentiment or mindedness), i. e. the 
 last subjective ground of adopting maxims, can be but 
 one, and goes universally to the whole use of freedom. 
 Farther, this ground must itself have been adopted by 
 one's own free choice, otherwise it could not be imputed. 
 Again, the ulterior subjective ground or inward cause 
 of such adoption cannot be known, although it is impos- 
 sible not to inquire after it ; since, to account for it, all 
 that could be done, would be to assign another maxim, 
 into which that sentiment had been adopted, and which 
 maxim, again, must have had a farther ground ; where- 
 fore, seeing that this sentiment, or rather its last ground, 
 cannot be deduced nor explained from any act of choice, 
 as & first act in time, we call it a property of Will, belong- 
 ing by Nature to the appetitive faculty, although, in point 
 of fact, it arises from the Will's own Freedom. Moreover, 
 when we say of mankind that he is by Nature good or 
 evil, those moral properties are not predicated of him in- 
 dividually, as if some particulars were by nature good, 
 and only others evil; although, to become entitled to un- 
 
 reason. And yet, on the other hand, when we contemplate this moral 
 being as a phenomenon, i. e. according to what experience and obser- 
 vation teach, then may either question be answered in the affirmative ; 
 for then he is not weighed in the balance of pure reason {before a Divine 
 Tribunal)^ but measured by an a posteriori standard {before a Human Court)y 
 of which more anon in the sequel. 
 
26 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 dei'stand those tei'ms as applicable generally to the whole 
 race, can take place only then, when anthropological in- 
 vestigations show, that the grounds entitling us to ascribe 
 to one single man, either of those characters, are such as to 
 leave no room for excepting any from their influence. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 OF MANKIND S ORIGINARY PREDISPOSITION TOWARD GOOD. 
 
 This aboriginal substratum may be fitly brought all un- 
 der review, when classed according to the three following 
 heads : 
 
 I. The substratum of man's animality as a living 
 being. 
 
 II. The substratum of his humanity as a lixdng, and 
 at the same time intelligent being. 
 
 III. The substratum of his personality as an intelli- 
 gent and accountable being.* 
 
 * The third predisposition cannot be regarded as already exhausted by 
 either or both of the two former ; for although an animal may have rea- 
 son, it follows not, from that circumstance alone, that his intellect should 
 possess the ability of determining unconditionally his will, and that too 
 by the mere representing of the fitness of a maxim for universal legisla- 
 tion ; i. f. it does not follow, because man has reason, that reason should be 
 self-practical, at least not so far as we can see. How intelligent soever 
 a creature might be, it might very possibly still stand in need of certain 
 springs taken from desired objects, in order to determine its volitions ; 
 nay, it wight bestow the most prudent and deliberate judgment both on the 
 springs and means of action, so as thereby most commodiously to reach the 
 end willed, without ever awaking to the reality, or even dreaming the pos- 
 sibility, of such a thing as a moral unconditionally-commanding law, which 
 should announce itself at once as the detcrminator and supreme spring. 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 27 
 
 1. The predisposition for mankind's Animality may 
 be stated under the general denomination of mechanical 
 or instinctive self-love, i. e. such self-love as needs no ex- 
 ercise of reason, and is threefold ; Jirst, the appetite for 
 self-preservation ; second, toward the propagation of one's 
 species by means of the connubial affections, and toward 
 rearing whatever progeny may he procreated by inter- 
 sexual coramixtion ; third, the taste for society, and gene- 
 ral intercourse with one's fellow-men. Upon these, vari- 
 ous sorts of vices may be ingrafted, though they spi-ing 
 not spontaneously from those predispositions as a root. 
 They are the vices of an unpruned and uncultivated sen- 
 sory, and may, when swerving farthest from the ends pro- 
 posed by nature in giving man those appetites, be called 
 beastly vices, viz. those of gluttony, drunkenness, vo- 
 luptuousness, and that savage contempt of law exhibit- 
 ed in the life of systematic freebooters, pirates, and the 
 like. 
 
 2. Man's Humanity may be all classed under the ge- 
 neral title of comparative self-love, for which theoretic 
 reason is required, whereby we deem ourselves happy or 
 the reverse, when compared with others as a standard. 
 Hence springs the appetite for being thought to be some 
 one in the eyes of others ; this appetite, at first no more 
 than a wish to be deemed their equal, so as not to allow 
 to any one a superiority over us, attended, however, with 
 the continual apprehension that others may seek to sub- 
 
 AVere not this law really given within us, never could we have quibbled 
 into existence such a legislation by any stretch of reason, much less have 
 wheedled our will into the belief of its authority. This law alone it is, 
 that convinces us of the independency of our will on every outward and 
 foreign determinative, and, along with this, of the imputability of all our 
 actions. 
 
28 OF THE INDWELLING OF a'pRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 ject US to their sway, passes at last into a state of mind 
 where we cherish an unjust desire of lording it over 
 others. Upon this spirit of rivalry and emulation may he 
 grafted the most enormous vices, bursting out into ani- 
 mosities, open or concealed, against all whom we look 
 upon as strangers. And yet those vices do not sprout na- 
 turally from the soil of our humanity, but are re-agent 
 vices, occasioned by our anxiety lest others should obtain 
 a hateful authority over us, and impelling us, as a measure 
 of precaution, to anticipate them, by usurping to ourselves 
 the power we dread may be employed against us. Whereas 
 nature, in implanting within us an emulous spirit — (a 
 thing by no means inconsistent with mutual love) — aimed 
 only at supplying a spur towards self-culture. Vices en- 
 graffed on this appetite may therefore be called civilized 
 VICES, and are, when luxuriant in wickedness, known by 
 the name of the devilish vices, — envy; ingratitude ; 
 and malice. 
 
 3. Man's predisposition for personality consists in his 
 susceptibility for such reverence toward the moral law as 
 is of itself sufficient to make the law the immediate spring 
 of will. Mere susceptibility for reverence toward the law 
 is the moral sense ; but this in itself would not justify us 
 in taking it for any particular predisposition pointing to 
 any particular end ; it can be held so only so far forth as 
 it is an original spring of will. Again, since reverence 
 can only be constituted such a spring by the wilTs freely 
 adopting it into its maxim, which, when done, imparts to 
 the person whose choice is so regulated, a good charac- 
 ter, and this, like every character belonging to a free 
 choice, is something that must always be acquired ; it 
 follows that for the possibility of such acquisition a pre- 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 29 
 
 disposition of some sort or other, in our ethical econo- 
 my, is demanded, whereupon nothing that is evil can 
 be grafted. The naked idea of the moral law, even with 
 the reverence inseparably attaching to it, cannot with pro- 
 priety be looked upon as the substratum of man's person- 
 ality — on the contrary, it is itself his personality — is the 
 very idea of a man's humanity considered quite intellec- 
 tually. That we are able to adopt this reverence into our 
 maxims, thereby making it a spring, must rest upon some 
 subjective ground ; and this would seem to be somewhat 
 additional, superinduced on our personality, and this sur- 
 plus is what may be fitly termed a predisposition toward, 
 and for behoof of, our moral personality. 
 
 Recapitulating the three aforesaid aboriginal substrata 
 according to the conditions of their possibility, it is appa- 
 rent that the first needs no raticnal power of any sort ; 
 that the second does indeed require a practical exercise of 
 reason, but only in subservience to physical springs ; while 
 the third alone is self -practical, i. e. has unconditionally- 
 legislative reason working at the root. All these predis- 
 positions of humanity are not only negatively good, i. e. 
 so far forth as they are in no wise repugnant to the moral 
 law ; but they even tend positively toward good, so far 
 forth as they actually advance and assist in its execution. 
 They are all origin ary; for human nature would be im- 
 possible without them, and though the two former may 
 be abused and perverted, none of them can be extirpated. 
 The term predisposition, applied to any being, must be un- 
 derstood to mean not only the elements essential to its 
 constitution, but also that form of their arrangement 
 whereby the agent is made what he is. Such elements 
 are originary when they are of necessity pre-required 
 
30 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 toward the possibility of a creature's being precisely what 
 be is : contingent could the Being still be essentially 
 the same without them. Finally, let it be remaiked, that 
 in this section no predispositions have been spoken of, 
 except such as immediately refer to the faculty of appeti- 
 tion, and the determinableness of its cboice. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 OF THE BIAS TO EVIL IN HUMAN NATL'RE. 
 
 By the term bias {propensity or proneness), I under- 
 stand the subjective ground of the possibility of acquiring 
 all at once inveterate habits, so far forth as such habitual 
 desire is in itself only adventitious, and casually superin- 
 duced upon human nature. A Bias* must not be con- 
 founded with a predisposition ; for though both may be 
 brought by mankind into the world with liim at his birth, 
 
 • Bias (Hang) is, strictly speaking, the susceptibU'ity of so liking an ob- 
 ject of desire, as that when once the Subject has tasted the enjoyment, a 
 permanent appetite toward it is thereby forthwith established. Thus all 
 savages carry about with them a Bias toward intoxicating liquors ; for 
 though there he many among them who know not the excitement of 
 inebriation, and so by consequence entertain no desire for those things 
 which produce it, still it is only necessary to allow them this gratifica- 
 tion for a tingle time, in order to found an almost ineradicable appetite 
 for spirits. Midway betwixt appetite and bias (both which presup- 
 pose acquaintance with the object desired) lies instinct, a want felt 
 to do or enjoy sometiiing yet unknown {e.g. the plastic instincts of ani- 
 mals or our own for sex). I^aslly, there is a stage of desire above appe- 
 tite, viz. VASsiON (not emotion, for emotions, whttiier aifectionate or dis- 
 affected, belong to the feelings of pain and pleasure), which is an appe- 
 tite that excludes and takes away all self-command [Compare Kant's In. 
 
 traduction to th' Elementology o/Ethict, § xvi. and Anthrojidogie, § 77. Tr. ) 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 31 
 
 still the bias must not be regarded as congenite or innrte ; 
 but must — be the bias to good or to evil — be looked upon 
 as matter of acquisition, and entailed by the man upon 
 himself. At present we speak only of a Bias to Moral 
 Evil ; and since evil can arise only from a perverse de- 
 termination of one's free choice, which choice again can 
 only be deemed good or evil when regard is had to the 
 maxims it has adopted, it follows that the bias to evil can 
 only consist in the subjective ground of the possibility of 
 an Agent-Intelligent's maxims sv/erving from the Moral 
 Law; and if this bias can be predicated of mankind univer- 
 sally, i. e. as marking and making part of the character 
 of the race, then may it be fitly called a natural bias of 
 mankind to evil. To all which is to be added, that the 
 hence arising ability or disability of the choice to make 
 the Moral Law its maxim, is what is called the having of 
 a good or evil heart. 
 
 We may figure to ourselves three different degrees of 
 this badness of heart : First, it is the general weakness of 
 man's heart in not adhering to good maxims originally de- 
 termined on, or, in other words, the frailty of our na- 
 ture. Second, the tendency to mix up immoral with 
 the moral springs, which, even although this admixture 
 should take place with a good intention, and from {sup- 
 posed? Tr.) maxims of good, must nevertheless be called 
 impurity. Lastly, the bias to adopt merely evil maxims, 
 which is the depravity of man's nature, or of his heart. 
 
 First, the frailty of human nature afforded matter of 
 complaint even to an Apostle : " What I would, that I do 
 not." Willing I am, but the execution follows not, i. e. I 
 adopt the good (tlTe law) into the maxim of my choice ; 
 but this, which is objectively in idea {in thesi) an irresisti- 
 
32 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 ble spring, is notwithstanding subjectively (in hypothesi), 
 when the maxim is to be acted on, the weaker, when com- 
 pared with the appetitive springs. 
 
 Second, The impurity of the human heart consists in 
 this : The maxim is very likely, in regard of its nature and 
 end aimed at (viz. the intended observance of the law) 
 good, and even a sufficiently powerful mobile to action ; 
 but then it is not purely moral, i. e. the law is not, as it 
 should be, stated in the maxim as of itself alone the suf- 
 ficient spring, but there are required at times [perhaps 
 at all times) other springs diflFerent from the law to assist 
 in bending the choice toward that which duty would de- 
 mand. In other words, conduct, although dutiful, has not 
 been performed purely out of duty. 
 
 Third, the depravity, or, if the term be preferred, the 
 CORRUPTION, of the Human Heart, is the bias whereby the 
 choice leans to maxims that postpone the spring afforded 
 by the Moral Law in favour of other and immoral springs. 
 It may be likewise called the perversity of the Human 
 Heart, inasmuch as it inverts or perverts the ethical order 
 of a free will's springs ; and although legally good actions 
 may still be exhibited notwithstanding that inward disor- 
 der, the cast of thinking is {so far as the moral-mindedness 
 of the Agent is concerned) corrupted at its root, and the 
 man must upon that account be characterized as evil. 
 
 The reader will have observed that the bias to evil is here 
 charged upon all men, even the best in outward actions, 
 which moreover must be done, if the universality of a 
 bias to evil is to be proved as extant among all men, or, 
 which says the same thing, if we are to show that the bias 
 is interwoven with the nature of man. 
 
 There is, however, betwixt a man of good morals {bene 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 33 
 
 moralus) and a morally good man {moi-aliter bonus) no dif- 
 ference, so far at least as the harmony of their actions with 
 the law is concerned, except this, that wiili tlie one th.e 
 law is not always, perhaps never, whereas with the other 
 it is AT ALL TIMES, the alouc and supreme spring. Of the 
 first we may say, he observes the letter of the laav 
 {i. e. so far forth as regards the act commanded by the law), 
 of the other, however, he has observed its spirit; 
 (the spirit of the law consists herein, that it be alone and 
 by itself a sufficient spring) and that whatever is not 
 OF this faith, is sin {in respectofthe Formalof the intent). 
 For whenever ulterior sprii'gs arc required to determine 
 the choice to make its election of Icgi-conform acts, such, 
 for instance, as ambition, self-love, a good-natured instinct, 
 or sympathy, all which obviously differ from the law, then 
 is it merely accidental that these coincide in any given 
 conjuncture with the same ; and they might possibly just 
 as easily invite to transgression. The maxim according 
 to whose worth all moral value of the person must be es- 
 timated, is notwithstanding itself illegal ; and the man re- 
 mains, in the midst of merely good deeds all the while evil. 
 Farther explanation may be needful to clear up the no- 
 tion of a BIAS. Every bias is either physical, i. e. belongs 
 to man's choice as an organized product of the physical 
 system, or it is ethical, i. e. affects his choice as a Moral 
 Agent. In the former sense, there can be no bias to 
 moral evil, for a bias of this sort must arise from free- 
 dom ; and a physical bias (resting upon sensitive excite- 
 ment) toward any use of freedom — be it good or bad — is 
 a contradiction. An indwelling bias toward evil can 
 therefore cleave only to the moral faculty of choice. 
 Again, nothing can be morally («. e. imputably) evil that 
 
34 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 is not our own deed. Contrariwise, however, is under- 
 stood by a bias, a subjective determinator of choice ante- 
 cedent to every deed, wliich bias, therefore, is not yet 
 itself a deed. The bare representation of a bias to evil, 
 would, by consefjuence, contain a contradiction, were not 
 the expression taken in a twofold sense, either adapting 
 itself to the idea freedom. Now, the term " deed " or 
 " act^' may signify that ])rimordial use of freedom where- 
 by the supreme and ruling maxim — contrary to, or in 
 harmony with, the law — was determined on, or it may 
 equally well denote that derived exercise of will whereby 
 outward actions themselves (^. e. acts materially consider- 
 ed, so far forth as they are objects of choice), are actually 
 brought forth, conformably to such maxim. The in- 
 dwelling bias toward evil is a deed in the former sense 
 [peccatum originarium), and at the same time the formal 
 ground of every illegal deed in the second sense (peccatum 
 derivativum), when it is called vice. The guilty demerit 
 of the first subsists even while that of the second is most 
 carefully and successfully eschewed by dint of springs 
 differing from the law. The one act is a deed cogitable^ 
 patent to reason a priori, independently of all conditions 
 of time ; the other is a deed sensible, a posteriori, exhibited 
 in time [Factum Phenomenon). It is the former, as more 
 particularly contradistinguished from the latter, that is a 
 bias, and held connate, chiefly because it never can be ex- 
 tirpated (whicli uprooting would demand a supreme maxim 
 morally good, a thing impossible, since, owing to the pre- 
 sence of the bias, the uppermost and ruling] bent is al- 
 ready figured as morally evil) ; and also because the ques- 
 tion, why evil should have corrupted our dominant and 
 last maxim of choice ? is as unanswerable (although the 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 35 
 
 corruption be our own deed) as is the inquiry after the 
 causes of any other fundamental property, now once for 
 all belonging to our being. What has just been here ad- 
 vanced assigns the ground, why in this section we at once 
 sought the three sources of moral evil only there, where, 
 agreeably to laws of freedom, was to be sought the ulti- 
 mate ground of choosing or of observing our practical 
 maxims, — overlooking the sensory as mere receptivity. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 MAN IS BY NATURE EVIL. 
 
 Vitiis nemo sine nascitur. Horat. 
 
 The position, man is evil, can consequently signify 
 nothing more than this : He is inwardly aware of the 
 authority of the moral law, and has, notwithstanding, 
 adopted the intent of occasionally swerving from it into 
 his maxim. To say that by nature he is evil, imports 
 that evil can be predicated of him, considered as a race ; 
 not however as if such wicked quality could be concluded 
 upon from the general notion of humanity, for in this lat- 
 ter event his indwelling evil would be necessary, i. e. maii- 
 kind, as known by us from observation and experience, 
 cannot be otherwise judged of; or thus — we may pre-sup- 
 pose this evil as subjectively-necessary, in every, even the 
 best man. Again, since the bias must itself be regarded 
 as morally evil, consequently as no gift of nature, but 
 as something that may be imputed, it must consist in ille- 
 gal maxims of choice. Farther, since this illegality must, — 
 
36 OF THK INDWELLING 01' A PRINCIPLE OV EVIL 
 
 the will being free, — be regarded as fortuitous ; which con- 
 tingency, however, would seem to be at variance and in- 
 compatible with this evil's universality, unless the first 
 subjective ground of appointing maxims be interwoven, 
 somehow or other, and, as it were, rooted, iu the substra- 
 tum of humanity : we shall therefore call this bent a na- 
 tural bias to evil ; and since it is self-demerited, we shall 
 moreover call it a radical evil, inborn in tlie nature 
 of man, and yet nevertheless entailed by him upon him- 
 self. 
 
 That such a corrupt bias must really be rooted in man- 
 kind, scarce needs a regular proof, when we reflect on the 
 multitude of crying instances, thrown by the observed ac- 
 tions of man into our hands. Do we prefer examples from 
 that state of society philosophers have eulogized as setting 
 forth the primeval good-natured dispositions of the race? 
 then we need only to contrast with this hypothesis the 
 scenes of wanton and unprovoked cruelty in the murder- 
 ous dramas enacted on the stage of Tofoa, New Zea- 
 land, and the Navigators' Islands, or the ceaseless feuds* 
 that devastate {according to Captain Hearne) whole tracts 
 
 • Like the perpetual war betwixt the Arathavesqwa, and the dog- ribbed 
 Indians, — a war having no other end in view than mutual murder. In 
 their opinion, martial valour is the chief virtue of savage life. Even in 
 civilized states, warlike intrepidity is an object of admiration, and the 
 ground of an especial regard expected by that profession who deem 
 courage their only boast ; and not without reason : for, that mankind can 
 propose to himself something as his end, prized by him even higher than 
 life (honour), and where he divests himself of every interested aim, 
 demonstrates a certain sublimity in his internal predispositions. And 
 yet the conij)laccncy wherewith conquerors extol their mightv feats of 
 destruction and implacable deatli, shows but too clearly, that mere vio- 
 lent superiority, and tiie havock they can eifect, even apart from every 
 other view is precisely that whereon they most plume themselves. 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. ST 
 
 of North- West America, — from which deadly havock not 
 one individual derives the smallest gain, — and wc have vices 
 of the savage more than enough to make us abandon that 
 assumption. Think we, on the other hand, to find a more 
 favourable portrait of human nature among civilized na- 
 tions (where their faculties are better and more fully de- 
 veloped), and we shall straightway hear a long melancho- 
 ly litany, whose stanzas contain nothing but indictments 
 against humanity : we shall hear of a secret guile betwixt 
 even the most cordial friends, so that a certain moderation 
 and reserve of confidence is recommended even in friend- 
 ship, as an indispensable rule of prudence; of a propen- 
 sity to hate those who have obliged us, and for which re- 
 turn every benefactor must be prepared ; of a hearty 
 good-will, which still leaves room for the remark, that 
 there is something in the misfortunes of a very dear friend 
 not altogether displeasing to us, of many other vices 
 cloaked with a specious and dissembled mantle of virtue ; 
 to say nothing of those open faults which disdain all se- 
 crecy ; and we shall have enough of the civilized vices 
 (the most mortifying of all) to cause us to avert our 
 view from the faulty conduct of our fellows, lest we su- 
 perinduce upon us a still farther, and perhaps more hate- 
 ful vice, that of misanthropy. Should this catalogue, 
 however, not yet sufiice, then let any one attend to the 
 vices curiously compounded out of both at once, obtain- 
 ing betwixt states in tlieir outward international i-ela- 
 tions, where countries, although civilized, place them- 
 selves to one another in the relation of savage hordes, i. e. 
 into a state of continual readiness for war, and that, too, 
 with such forethought obstinacy, that they seem to have 
 taken up the rooted opinion, that standing armies never 
 
38 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 are to be abandoned ; and he will immediately perceive, 
 that those great societies called NATioNsf proceed upon 
 principles diametrically contrary to their professed ob- 
 jects — principles whereof they know not how to divest 
 themselves, — which no philosopher lias yet been able to 
 bring into harmony with morality, nor (which is worst) 
 in exchange for which has he been able to propose any 
 better, that would be in unison with human nature; from 
 whence it has happened, that the pliilosophical millen- 
 nium, which expects a period of perpetual peace, ground- 
 ed on a universal league of nations, constituting them- 
 selves into a grand cosmical republic, is— just like the the- 
 ological, which tarries for the complete moral amend- 
 ment of the whole human race, — universally derided as a 
 fanatical delusion. 
 
 The ground of this evil cannot be placed (first), as is 
 
 t Looking at the historical progress of states as the phenomenal exhi- 
 bition of those internal predispositions of our humanity that are for the 
 most i)art hidden from our oivn view, we become aware of a certain me> 
 chanical precession, whereby nature advances her own ends, even while 
 defeating and disappointing nations of theirs. Every state endeavours 
 to enlarge its territories by oven-unning all adjacent whom it hopes to 
 conquer, and so, if possible, to erect a universal monarchy ; a state of 
 matters where all freedom, and along wilh it its fruits, viz. virtue, 
 taste, and science, must expire. But the monster, after having de- 
 voured all its neighbours, explodes by and by of "itself,— its laws losing 
 by degrees all co-active power,_and becoming broken up by insurrec- 
 tion and revolt into several lesser states. These, instead of combining 
 in a dvitm viaxhna (i. c. a conmionweallli of free confederate peoples), 
 begin in turn the same game of new, lest war (that scourge of our 
 species) should cease; a thing, which, although by no means so incurably 
 evil as the deadly sepulture of a universal empire (or even as a uoly al- 
 i.iANct, to guarantee to Despots their respective Despotisms for ever), 
 does, nevertheless, ns was reumrked by one of the ancients, make ftr 
 more wicked men than it rcimm$. 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OV GOOD. 39 
 
 commonly clone, in the human sensory, and the thence 
 arising natural appetites and wants ; for not only have the 
 appetites no immediate reference to evil (on the contrary, 
 by allowing the moral sentiment to appear in its force, 
 they afford opportunity to good) ; but farther, we are not 
 accountable for their existence (neither can we impute 
 them to ourselves; for, as con-created, we are not their au- 
 thor) ; but what we are by all means accountable for, is 
 the bias to evil, which, as it affects the morality of our own 
 subject, i. e. that wherein and whereby we are free agents, 
 must, as self-demerited, by all means be imputed to us, 
 notwithstanding the deep inrooting of that bias into our 
 choice ; upon account of which bias, we must say that 
 evil is by nature indwelling in man. Neither can {second- 
 ly) the ground of this evil be placed in a corruption of 
 moral-legislative reason, as if reason had abrogated and 
 defaced within itself the authority of the law, and rebel- 
 led against the obligation founded on it ; for this last is ab- 
 solutely impossible. An agent, free, and at the same time 
 absolved from his corresponding Moral Law of Liberty, is 
 a manifest contradiction, and tantamount to fancying a 
 cause in operation without efficient laws. So then, to ex- 
 plain the ground of moral evil in man, the sensory con- 
 tains too little; for the sensory, by itself alone, and ab- 
 stractedly from those springs originated by fi-eedom, low- 
 ers man merely to an animal ; whereas the hypothesis of 
 an absolutely wicked will, and a reason renouncing the 
 government of its own laws, contains too much ; since, in 
 this latter case, a principle of antagonism against the law 
 would be constituted the ruling spring, and the person 
 would be transformed to a Devil. Neither of these cha- 
 racters, however, can properly be applied to mankind. 
 
40 or THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 Altliougli the existence of a bias to evil can be suffi- 
 ciently set forth by the proved collision of man's choice 
 with the law, still such phenomena, experienced and ob- 
 served in time, do not acquaint us with the inward na- 
 ture nor the true ground of this enmity; for, since this 
 antagonism obtains betwixt free choice (?'. e. such a choice 
 as can only be cogitated by an a priori notion), and the 
 moral law, so far forth as it is a spring (where, again, we 
 have still to deal with a pure intellectual conception), it 
 follows, that it must be cognisable a priori, and be dedu- 
 ced from the idea evil, so far as such evil is possible accord- 
 ing to freedom's laws of obligation and imputability. What 
 follows is the evolution of this idea. 
 
 No man (not even the worst) does in any maxim state 
 a rebellion against the moral law by a studied renuncia- 
 tion, and, as it were, disclamation of his due obedience. 
 On the contrary, the law does, by force of liis moral na- 
 ture, thrust itself irresistibly upon him ; and Avere no 
 oilier spring astir in the mind, he would adopt it as a suf- 
 ficient dctcrminator into his uppermost maxim, i. e. he 
 would be morally good. But, by means of his physical 
 nature, although equally harmless with the other, he 
 leans toward the springs of sense, and, agreeably to the 
 subjective principles of self love, adopts these also into 
 his maxims of life. But were he to do so irrespectively 
 of the law, and make them by themselves alone, the sing- 
 ly-sufficient determinators of his acts, then he would be 
 morally evil. Since now he naturally adopts both into his 
 maxims, and since either, when alone, would be found 
 quite enough to alford a ground of voluntary determina- 
 tion ; he would, — if the moral difference of maxims de- 
 pended only on the difference of their contained springs 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 41 
 
 (i. e. on the matter of those maxims), viz. whether the law, 
 or an impulse of sense, were such matter, — be at once both 
 morally good and evil, which, however agreeably to what 
 was laid down in the exordium, is a contradiction. Con- 
 sequently, that whereby a man is morally good or evil, 
 cannot depend on the difference of the springs adopted by 
 him into his maxims {not on their matter), but on their 
 subordination (on their form), namely, which one he 
 
 CHOOSES TO MAKE THE CONDITION OF THE OTHERS. 
 
 Hence it appears that mankind is only evil so far forth 
 as he inverts the ethical order of those springs which he 
 adopts into his maxims. In choosing his principles of 
 life, he begins by attempting to place self-love and the 
 moral law alongside of one another ; and on becoming 
 aware that they cannot subsist as co-ordinates, but that 
 one must necessarily be subordinated to the other as its 
 condition, he makes the selfish spring condition his ob- 
 servance of the law ; whereas the latter it is that ought 
 to be the condition precedent of his gratifying the former, 
 and stated as the alone and exclusively prior spring in his 
 supreme and most universal maxim. 
 
 Notwithstanding this invertedness of the will's springs, 
 contrary to their legitimate ethical ordei-, actions may 
 outwai*dly be as much in liarmony with the law as if they 
 had sprung from genuine motives ; so long as reason 
 lends to the appetitive springs, when integrated as great- 
 est-happiness principles, that unity which would other- 
 wise belong to the moral law — a case where a man's out- 
 ward and observed character is good, although his intelli- 
 gible remain all the while evil. 
 
 If, now, there be in human nature a proneness to this 
 inverting of the proper order of the will's springs, then 
 
42 OF THE IKDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 is there iu mau a natural bias toward evil ; and such bias 
 is itself morally evil, for it must be regarded as seated in 
 the will's free causality, and consequently as imputable. 
 This evil is radical, for it corrupts man's maxims in 
 their last ground. Moreover, as a natural bias, it never 
 can be extirpated by any exertions of the human subject, 
 for this could only take place by force of good maxims, 
 which, when the supreme subjective ground of all max- 
 ims is already corrupt, never can occur ; nevertheless it 
 can be outweighed, being met with in mankind who are 
 free agents. 
 
 The vitiosity of human nature is, therefore, not so much 
 WICKEDNESS — this word being understood in its severest 
 sense, namely, as an inward wickedness, or intent of 
 choosing evil as evil (for that were diabolical), — as rather 
 PERVERSITY of heart, which, on account of the conse- 
 quences flowing from it, is called an evil heart. This, 
 however, is not inconsistent with a state of Will that may 
 generally and on the whole be good, and arises from the 
 infirmity of human nature, which is not sufficiently strong 
 to adhere to the good principles it may once for all have 
 adopted ; coupled, however, with the impurity (insince- 
 rity) of not duly sifting and arranging the springs accord- 
 ing to their ethic content, and of having an eye mainly to 
 this, that actions quadrate with the Law, although they 
 have not been originated by it. Now, although from such 
 a state of matters vice may not immediately arise, still 
 the cast of thinking, whereby the absence of vice is look- 
 ed upon as virtue, is already a radical perversity of the 
 human heart. 
 
 This guilt, called connate, because it shows itself as 
 early as the first utteraikccs of Mankind's Freedom, though 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD 43 
 
 sprung from it and imputable, may, in its two first 
 stages of frailty and impurity, be regarded as uninten- 
 tional (culpa)y and only in the third as forethought crime 
 (dolus) ; for it bears the character of a certain guile (do- 
 lus malusj of heart, whereby we deceive ourselves as to 
 the state of our own good or evil sentiments, and, instead 
 of troubling ourselves about our moral or immoral mind- 
 edness, deem ourselves rather justified before the Law, so 
 long as our actions draw after them no bad effects — a case 
 which, for any thing that the maxims are worth, might 
 very well happen. Hence comes the peace of conscience 
 of many who think themselves religious : in the midst of 
 actions where no consideration was had of the Law, or, 
 however, where the Law had not preponderating sway, 
 they luckily escape from all unpleasant sequents, and 
 hence have not only a tranquil mind, but perhaps even a 
 self-opinion of their own merit, by feeling themselves 
 guiltless of those transgressions wherewith they obserA'^e 
 others to be stained. Nor do they think it needful to in- 
 quire whether this exemption be owing merely to the 
 bounty of fortune, or whether the very same vices might 
 not have been committed by them, had not imbecility, con- 
 stitutional temperament, education, or circumstances of 
 time and place (all things quite unimputable), led them 
 to refrain. This insincerity, shrouding our real inward 
 character from our view, prevents the founding of genuine 
 moral principles within, and spreads, after having deceiv- 
 ed ourselves, so as next to beguile and impose upon others, 
 which, if not w;ickedness, is at least worthlessness, ' and 
 proceeds from the radical evil of human nature, which, 
 by distorting and untuning our moral understanding in 
 regard of what a man is to be taken for, renders slippery 
 
44 OF THE INDMELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 and uncertain all ethical imputation, and constitutes that 
 rotten spot in humanity, which, until entirely severed, 
 keeps back the germ of* good from unfolding itself, as it 
 otherwise infallibly would do. 
 
 A member of the British Parliament once, in the heat 
 of debate, threw out the remark, " Every one has a price, 
 for which he is certainly to be had." Should this indeed be 
 true (and let each determine for himself), and if there is 
 absolutely no virtue for which a grade of temptation can- 
 not be assigned sufficient for its overthrow ; and if our 
 enlisting under the banners of the good or the evil prin- 
 ciple depend on the highest bidder and quickest payment; 
 then may that be universally true of all men, once taught 
 by an Apostle, " There is liere no difference^ fur all are gone 
 astray. There is none that doeth good (according to the spirit 
 of the Law) ; no, not 07ie."* 
 
 • Of lliis condemnatory sentence of morally judginj^ reason, the proof 
 is contained, not in this, but in the former section ; the above confirms 
 only by experience the accuracy of the previous deduction. But expe- 
 rience and observation cannot unveil the original of this evil, I3 ing, as 
 it does, in the u])j)ermost maxim regulating our free choice, the ajipoint- 
 ment or adopting of wiiich governing princijjle is an intelligible act, 
 anterior to all exj)erience. Hence, likewise, viz. from the incomplex 
 unity of the uppermost maxim and the similarly uncompounded unity of 
 the standard law, we comprehend why the pure intellectual judgment of 
 mankind's morality proceeds on the principle of excluding any interme- 
 diary betwixt good and evil ; altiiough, when judging of actions nicrchj as 
 deals cxhihUcd to sense, the position is quite admissible that tbcrc may be 
 a mean betwixt the moral extremes. Thus, wc may hold ncgathc/t/, 
 that, prior to any education, man is indifferent to both good and evil ; or 
 positivcti/, that his moral actions arc mixed, being partly good and partly 
 bad. Hut these cxjierimental judgmcnls speak of the character of man 
 so far forth only as it is a sensihie hjienomenon, and must give place 
 to the pure a priori intellectual decision when a final and conclusive ad- 
 judication of the whole case is rcfjuired. 
 
ALONCi WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 45 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 OF THE ORIGIN OF EVIL IN HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 A FIRST BEGINNING is that Origination of an effect by 
 a cause, where the cause is not itself the effect of any other 
 cause of the like kind. A commencement may be con- 
 sidered as being either a cogitable or a sensible original. 
 In the former respect, we consider only the existence of 
 the effect; but in the latter, the happening of the effect, 
 where consequently the effect is as an event referred to 
 its CAUSE IN TIME. When an effect is referred to a cause 
 wherewith it stands connected agreeably to the laws of 
 freedom, as is the case with moral evil, then is the deter- 
 mination of choice toward its production, viewed in con- 
 nection, not with its determining grounds in time, but with 
 those in pure a priori reason only, and can consequent- 
 ly not be deduced from any antecedent state ; although 
 this last must always be done when an evil action is as an 
 EVENT in the external world referred to its efficient cause 
 in the physical system. To search for an origin in time, 
 of free actions as such, is a contradiction ; and it is equally 
 a contradiction to inquire after any such origin of the moral 
 peculiai-ities of man so far forth as these last are regarded 
 as contingent ; the last ground of the use of freedom must, 
 like every determinative of free choice whatsoever, be 
 sought for exclusively in intellectual representations. 
 
 Whatever the origin of the moral evil of humanity may 
 be, assuredly, of all representations, the most improper 
 and inept is that whereby its propagation over the race is 
 
46 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 figured as if it descended to us by inheritance from our 
 first parents ; for of moral evil we may well say what the 
 poet affirms of mankind's good-desert, " Genus, et proa- 
 vos, et quce nanfecimus ipsi, vix ea nostra voco."* Farther, 
 it is to be noted, that in investigating the origin of evil, 
 we do not at first take into consideration the bias toward 
 it {as peccatwn in potentia) ; but sift only the internal pos- 
 sibility of the true and actual evil of given actions, and 
 those conditions of choice that must concur and co-operate 
 with that possibility, before such evil can be perpetrated. 
 Every wicked action whatsoever must, when we consi- 
 der its cogitable original, be so depictured to the mind as 
 if the person had fallen directly into it, out of a state of 
 innocence : for, let a man's previous deportment have been 
 what it may, and whatsoever may have been the physical 
 force bearing in upon him ; nay, whether those physic 
 forces be entirely without, or, moreover, also within the 
 
 * The three academical faculties would make intelligible, each after 
 its own fashion, this hereditary transmission, viz. as hereditary dis- 
 ease, as A HERITABLE DEBT, Or 33 INHERITED DEPRAVITY. (1.) The 
 
 medical faculty would figure to themselves this heir-loom of evil as some- 
 thing like a tape-worm, concerning which many natural historians are of 
 opmion, that since nothing like it is found elsewhere, not even in any other 
 animal, this insect must have been pre-existent in our first parents. (2.) 
 Lawyers would regard it as the legal consequence of our succeeding 
 to a patrimony burdened severely with sundry casualties of superiority, 
 or other monstrous dehUa fundi. (To be born is nothing else than to 
 acquire possession of the goods of the earth, in so far as those are indis- 
 pensably requisite to our support.) We must now discharge (suffer for) 
 those obligations, and are notwithstanding eventually torn by death from 
 our possessions. (.3.) Theologians regard this evil as the personal par- 
 ticipation of our first parents in the apostacy of an outcast rebel, and 
 that we either then (although now no longer aware of il) joined his 
 party, or that, born at present under his dominion, we take more plea- 
 sure in the Prince of this World's goods than in the sovereign behest of 
 our Heavenly Lawgiver ; by which breach of allegiance, however, we 
 can only expect hereafter to share his destiny. 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 4T 
 
 man ; nevertheless his act is free and undetermined by any 
 one of those invading causes; and hence such deed not only 
 C071, but in truth must, be held an originary use of 
 CHOICE. He ought to have eschewed it, in what conjunc- 
 tures and circumstances soever he may have been placed ; 
 for by no cause in the world can he ever cease to be a free, 
 i. e. a spontaneously acting being. Farther, we rightly 
 say, that we impute to evei-y man the coNSEgUENCES aris- 
 ing from his former free immoral acts, and by this we 
 obviate an evasion that might otherwise be attempted, by 
 inquiring whether those sequents themselves be not be- 
 yond our control ; because in the primary free act giving 
 them birth, there is already extant sufficient ground of im- 
 puting them likewise. What although an intelligent may 
 have been never so inveterately wicked, even up to his pre- 
 sent and immediately instant act ? what though his evil 
 habits, long a second nature, should have grown into a 
 first ? still, notwithstanding, it has not only been all along 
 incumbent on him to act otherwise, but it is likewise even 
 NOW his immediate duty to amend ; consequently such in- 
 debted change must be fully within his power, and he is, 
 in the very moment of not altering his inner man, as open 
 to an imputation of transgressing, as if endowed with a 
 natural predisposition toward good — (a thing inseparable 
 from freedom) — he Avere now, by an original lapse, falling 
 from his pristine state of innocence into evil. We cannot 
 therefore raise any question as to such deed's origin in 
 time {i. e. its chronic origin) , but can investigate only its 
 origin in reason {i. e. its cogitable origin), when we wish to 
 look into, and, if possible, explain the bias, i. e. the gene- 
 ral subjective ground whereby we adopt into our maxim 
 an intent of transgressing. 
 
48 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL. 
 
 Quite analogous to what is here advanced is the repre- 
 sentation of this matter given by tlic Scripture, wlien it 
 describes the origin of evil as chronologically/ BEGimn'SG in 
 the human race, and narrates what in the nature of things 
 must have gone first (apart from all conditions of time) 
 as a commencement in time only. Agreeably to this an- 
 cient Chronicle, evil commences not from any indwelling 
 bias toward it, for then its rise and spring would not be 
 from the causality of freedom, but takes its origin from sin, 
 i. e. from the transgression of the Moral Law qtia Divine 
 Commandment. Again, the state of mankind antecedent 
 to all bias toward evil is called the state of innocence. 
 In this state the Moral Law first announced itself to man- 
 kind by its veto (Genesis, ii. 16, 17), as indeed it must 
 do in the case of every agent not altogether pure, but ex- 
 posed to the solicitations of appetite. But instead of ex- 
 clusively giving ear to this law as the only nncondition- 
 ately good spring, mankind began to beat about for sun- 
 dry other springs (Ibid. iii. 6), w^hich are no more than 
 hypothetically good (viz. so far forth as they encroach not 
 on the law), and made it his maxim (if we cogitate the 
 act as emanating with full consciousness from freedom) 
 to obey the Law of Duty, not singly out of Duly, but per- 
 chance with a view to some ulterior ends. Hence he be- 
 gan to quibble* away the severity of that commandment 
 
 • All homage demonstrated toward the law, so long as we give it not, 
 as hy and for itself the sufficient spring, preponderating weight over 
 every other determinative of choice, is hvpocriticai,, and the bias 
 to pay such abortive homage inwaiid guile, ». e. a bias to self-deceit, 
 when quadrating ourselves with the moral law ; upon which account it 
 is that the Rible calls the Author of Evil (who, however, resides in our- 
 selves) THE MAR rnoM THE HEGiNNiNci ; and thus characterizes man- 
 kind by what seems the main ground of his evil conduct. 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD, 49 
 
 which secludes the influence of every other spring. By and 
 by he degraded obedience to the rank of a mere mean or 
 condition subservient to principles of self-love ; thus final- 
 ly an undue weight of sensitive impulses became intro- 
 duced into the maxims of life, the springs arising from 
 the law were overbalanced, and so mankind sinned. 
 Mutato nomine de tefabiila narratur. That \ve daily and 
 hourly do just so; and that consequently " in Adam all 
 have siwied" and " still sin" is self-evident from our pre- 
 vious remarks; with this difference, however, that we 
 come into the world with a connate bias to transgression, 
 whereas in the first created pair no such bias — only inno- 
 cence — is conceivable; wherefore a transit into evil is in 
 their case spoken of as a fall — in us as proceeding from 
 the already extant and ingenite depravity of our nature. 
 This bias, however, signifies nothing farther, than that 
 when we endeavour to unravel and retrace the chronic 
 ORIGIN of evil, we must, for the cause of every predeter- 
 minate transgression, recede toward the sources of evil, 
 along the links of time, backwards to that period when 
 our rational faculties were as yet undeveloped; for the 
 groundwork of which development we must assume a bias 
 somewhere as a natural bent toward evil, called upon that 
 account connate — a mode of figuring to ourselves the mat- 
 ter, that, since our first parents are held to have been 
 created with, and instated in, the complete possession of all 
 their faculties, is in their case quite impracticable. For 
 had our progenitors brought with them into the world 
 any such indwelling bias, then it would have been, not in- 
 deed connate, but, what is far worse, concreated, and part 
 of their aboriginal subsistency; whereas, as it is, their 
 SIN is proposed to us as a fall out of innocence. — Of a 
 
 D 
 
50 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLF OF EVIL 
 
 moral propeity imputable to our account, no origin in 
 time is therefore to be sought, although it is quite inevit- 
 able not to attempt such an investigation when we wish 
 to EXPLAIN to ourselves its contingent presence with our 
 race. Whence perhaps also the Scripture, in condescension 
 to our frailty, may have thought fit thus to represent the 
 matter. 
 
 The cogitable origin of this disjointing of our choice, 
 whereby subordinate springs have come to be uppermost, 
 is inscrutable; for this bias to evil must itself be imputed 
 to us, and consequently the ground of choosing evil max- 
 ims would itself need to be accounted for by pre-suppos- 
 ing some ulterior maxim to adopt such evil ground. Evil 
 can only take its rise from what is morally bad, and can- 
 not have the bounds of our finite nature for its source ; 
 and yet, since the originary predispositions of humanity 
 (which, if this corruption is to be imputed to him, no 
 one save mankind himself could destroy) are all substrata 
 toward good, there remains no assignable ground whence 
 moral evil can at first have flowed. This incomprehen- 
 sibility, together with the more exact specifying of the 
 grade of mankind's wickedness, is what is suggested by 
 Holy Writ,* when it sets forth evil as coeval with the 
 
 ' What is here said is not to be understood as if it were intended for 
 Scriptural exegesis, — a thing quite beyond the legitimate boundary of 
 pure reason. People may come to a general understanding as to the 
 best mode of making available, for purposes of moral instruction, any 
 historic document, without undertaking to say whether the interpre- 
 tation is really the writer's meaning, or only one we put upon him ; 
 provided only that such interpretation contain what is in itself true, 
 even independently of all historic evidence, and be moreover the only 
 sense by dint of which we can extract from a passage somewhat condu- 
 cive to moral edification ; — since otherwise the narrative could be no 
 more than a fruitless augmentation of our historical knowledge. People 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 51 
 
 beginning of the world, though not yet to be met with in 
 man, but pre-existent in a spirit once of a most excel- 
 lent and lofty nature; whereby is foreshadowed to us just 
 this FIRST beginning of all evil as utterly unfathomable : 
 for whence can have come the evil of this spirit ? — as 
 also farther, that since 'twas only by his seduction that 
 mankind lapsed into evil, we are not out-and-out corrupt- 
 ed, but still capable of amendment, and thereby contradis- 
 tinguished from a seducing spirit, in whose favour no 
 fleshly appetites can be counted as an alleviation of his 
 guilt ; whereas with us, amid the ruin of our hearts there 
 are remains of a good will, and consequently room for the 
 not ungrounded hope of our return to that good from which 
 we have swerved. 
 
 GENERAL SCHOLION. 
 
 OF RE-INSTATING THE PREDISPOSITION TOWARD GOOD, 
 INTO ITS ORIGINARY POWER. 
 
 Whatever, in a moral sense, man is, or ought to be, 
 whether good or evil, that must he either have made, or 
 have still to make, out of himself ; either product must 
 
 ought not needlessly to dispute about a document, and its historical au- 
 thority, when that document's contents, how multiform soever they may 
 be, tend in nowise to make us better men, or when, if they have that 
 tendency, they can be known aliunde without documentary proof, and 
 indeed mtist be so cognizable. Historical knowledge, which cannot have 
 any inward reference to morality, nor validity for every one, falls under 
 the class of ethical adiapTiora, whereof each may take just as much as he 
 finds editying. 
 
52 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 be the effect of his own free choice, since, if otherwise, it 
 could not be imputed, and the man himself would conse- 
 quently be MORALLY neither good nor evil : When it is 
 said " mankind was created good," that can mean no 
 more than that he was destined for good by his Creator, 
 and that his originary predispositions are good. Man is 
 not, by force of these, already good, but only so far forth 
 as he rejects or adopts the thence arising good springs 
 into his maxims of conduct (which must be left entirely 
 to his option) does he bring it about that he becomes 
 either good or evil. Even admitting that toward his be- 
 coming good or better, supernatural co-operation were in- 
 dispensable, then, whether this aid consist in withdraw- 
 ing hinderances, or in lending him some positive help, 
 mankind must nevertheless first of all make himself wor- 
 thy to receive it, and must, by adopting this principle of 
 intensifjang strength into his maxim, lay hold on and 
 appropriate it — which assuredly is no small matter : thus 
 aUme can such superadded good be adjudged to his ac- 
 count, and the man himself be reckoned morally well-de- 
 serving and of ethical desert. 
 
 How it is possible that one naturally and radically bad 
 should come to make out of himself a man good — tran- 
 scends all our information ; for how can an evil tree bring 
 forth good fruit ? But since a tree confessedly good has, 
 agreeably to our foregoing investigation, brought forth 
 bad fruit ;* and since the lapse from good into evil (when 
 
 * A tree predisposed by its constitution toward good is no more than 
 possibly good, not yet really so ; for, were it actually good, then it could 
 not bring forth bad fruit. It is only when mankind avails himself of the 
 latent springs whereby he can act upon the law, that he becomes trulj 
 good (the tree an absolutely good tree.) 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 53 
 
 we bethink ourselves that it must arise from freedom) is 
 not more comprehensible than a return from that evil to- 
 ward good, the possibility of this latter transformation 
 cannot be denied. Notwithstanding our fall, the com- 
 mandment, " it behoves us to become better men" resounds 
 unintermittently throughout our soul ; consequently we 
 can amend, even were our own endeavour insufficient, 
 and only rendering us susceptible of an unsearchable 
 higher aid. In this assertion, we no doubt assume that a 
 germ of good still subsists in its entire purity, alike un- 
 corrupted and indestructible, which most certainly cannot 
 be self-love;* for this last, when made a ruling principle 
 of choice, is precisely the rise and source of every evil. 
 
 * Words that admit of a double sense not unfrequently prevent even 
 the clearest grounds of reason from begetting a full and permanent con- 
 viction. As LOVE, so may self-love be divided into that of benevo- 
 lence and COMPLACENCY. Both are quite consistent with reason. To 
 make the former a principle of conduct is quite natural, for who would 
 not wish for perpetual welfare ? And yet this selfish good-will is only 
 reasonable in so far as it proposes to itself those ends singly which may 
 consist with the highest and most lasting happiness, and then chooses 
 the fittest and most appropriate means for reaching those elements of 
 well-being. In such circumstances, reason acts merely as a handmaid 
 in the service of our ordinary appetites, and the systematic maxims 
 that may be adopted for appeasing them stand quite unrelated to mora- 
 lity, or do rather, when made the unconditioned principles of volition, ut- 
 terly subvert it. A reasonable love of self-complacency may also 
 be understood in a twofold manner : firsts that we are well-pleased with 
 ourselves in consequence of our gaining the aforementioned ends, and 
 then such complacential self-love is identic with the love of a selfish 
 good-will toward one's self. We take pleasure in ourselves, just as a 
 tradesman, whose mercantile speculations turn out well, congratulates 
 himself on his foresight and skill. Or, second^ we may mean the self- 
 love of an unconditioned complacency, and this latter self-com- 
 placency would not depend on whatever gain or losses might flow from 
 our actions, but on the inward principle of such self-approbation as can 
 alone spring from the subordination of all our maxims to the moral law. 
 No one to whom morality is not indifferent, can be well-pleased with 
 
54 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 The redintegration of our aboriginal predisposition to- 
 ward good, is consequently not the re-acquisition of a lost 
 ethic spring; for this consisting in reverence toward the mo- 
 ral law, we never could by any possibility have forfeited ; 
 and could such forfeiture at all occur, then never could we 
 again have resuscitated such a feeling within. The renova- 
 tion of mankind's moral character, is therefore the reviving 
 of reverence in its primitive purity, as a condition pre- 
 cedent, that must qualify every maxim ; agreeably to which 
 reverence, the law, — not merely conjunctly with other 
 springs, or perhaps postponed to them — but in its naked 
 integrity, is re-established as of itself the sufficient spring 
 determining our choice. The original good consists in that 
 sanctity of intent, which proposes to itself the execution 
 of all duty, whereby whoso entertains such pure maxims, 
 though not yet himself holy (for betwixt intent and act 
 there lies a mighty gap), is notwithstanding on the road 
 
 himself while conscious of sentiments militating against the law ; 
 on the contrary, such inward warfare can only leave room for a feeling 
 of the most bitter self-dislike. Hence we may speak of a practical 
 SELr-LOVE, which disdains all admixture of foreign elements of happi. 
 ness, and seeks satisfaction only in the pure a priori spring of choice. 
 Since, however, this last is neither more nor less than iuunediate reve- 
 rence toward the law, it is difficult to understand why people embarrass 
 themselves by talking of a reasonaule and of a moral self-love, 
 seeing tbat ethically mankind can only like himself so far forth as he is 
 aware of having made reverence for tiie law his ruling motive. Happi- 
 ness is, agreeably to our sensitive nature, the first object that we uncon- 
 ditionally desire ; although, when viewed in connection with our whole 
 rational and free economy, it is neither the first nor yet unconditioned ob. 
 ject of choice. This last is odr worthiness of being rendered 
 HAPPY ; ». c. the harmony o. all our maxims with the moral law. That 
 this be made the objective condition, under which alone our wish for hap- 
 j)incss can be brought into unison with legislative reason, is the dritl and 
 upshot of every ethic rescript ; and a moral cast of thought just consists 
 in iiarbouring only such conditioned wishes. 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF QOOD. 55 
 
 thitherward, and approximating his goal by endless pro- 
 gression. Readiness in performing dutiful actions is how- 
 ever called VIRTUE, when regard is had merely to the le- 
 gality of a person's character, so far forth as it can be 
 known from experience and observation ( Virtus PhcBno- 
 menon). Such virtuous character is in permanent posses- 
 sion of maxims, whence actions outwardly in harmony 
 with the law arise — only the springs employed for 
 this purpose are borrowed indifferently fi-ora any quar- 
 ter. In this sense, virtue is acquired bit-by-bit, and 
 is defined by many to be a long habit of observing 
 the law, whereby mankind passes, as he gradually re- 
 forms his conduct, from a proneness to vice, into a 
 contrary bias toward virtue ; for all which, no change 
 OF HEART is needed, only a change of manners. 
 Mankind deems himself virtuous when he feels his 
 habits confirmed of performing what outwardly is du- 
 ty, although his actions flow not from the supi-erae prin- 
 ciple of morality. On the contrary, the intemperate grows 
 sober for the sake of health : the liar betakes himself to 
 truth, on account of his reputation ; the fraudulent returns 
 to municipal honesty from a view to repose or gain ; all 
 in conformity with the lauded greatest-happiness-prin- 
 ciples. But for any one to become not merely a legal- 
 ly, but, moreover, a morally-good man {i. e. acceptable 
 to God), that is, virtuous according to his intelligible 
 character (Virtus Noumenon), and to make himself one 
 who, when he recognises any thing to be his duty, needs 
 no other or farther motive than just this very represen- 
 tation duty, that cannot be effected by any gradual re- 
 forms, so long as the basis of his maxims remains im- 
 pure ; but can only be accomplished by a transvolu- 
 
56 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 TION of the sentiments of the inner man (an instant 
 transit to maxims of holiness), and he becomes a new man 
 only through a sort of regeneration, as it were by a new- 
 creation {John, iii. 5 ; Genesis, i. 2), and change of heart. 
 But if man is depraved at the bottom of his heart, how 
 is it possible that he, by his own strength, can bring about 
 this revolution within, and become, of his own accord, a 
 good man ? Nevertheless, duty thus enjoins; but the law 
 ordains nothing impracticable, wherefore we must hold 
 that the revolving takes place in the cast of thinking ; and 
 that the gradual reform affects the bent of the sensory so 
 far forth as this last throws obstacles before the first : that 
 is to say, — when by one single inflexible determination, 
 mankind retroverts his will's perverted bias for choosing 
 evil maxims, he then puts on a new man, and becomes, in 
 regard of his principles and inward-mindedness, placed in 
 a capacity for good : while, perceptibly, it is only through 
 a long track of conduct that he can be seen even by him- 
 self to have grown into a good man. In a siugle word, it 
 is to be hoped, that this purity of principle, now chosen 
 as his dominant rule of life, will suflice to keep him un- 
 swervingly steady, along the good though narrow rail- 
 way of a perpetual progression from bad to better. This 
 progression is for him to whom the unknown depths of 
 the heart are patent, and in whose All-Seeing eye the mo- 
 ments of the series are envisaged in their sum, an integral 
 unity, i. e. is before God tantamount to being already a 
 really good man, and acceptable in his sight : wherefore, 
 thus far forth the change may be regarded as a finished 
 and entire conversion of the heart. But for mankind, who 
 can only estimate themselves, and the strength of their 
 adopted maxims, by the upperhand they gradually gain 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 57 
 
 through time over the sensory, the transition can never he 
 regarded otherwise, than as an ever-enduring striving after 
 what is better, consequently, as no more than a gi-adual 
 reformation of the bias to evil. 
 
 Hence it follows, that the moral education cf man can- 
 not begin with correcting his manners, but must take its 
 rise from a transvolving of his cast of thinking, and must 
 set to work by endeavouring to beget and found a cha- 
 racter. Commonly, however, people set about this mat- 
 ter otherwise, fighting against singular vices, and leaving 
 the common root, whence they sprout, untouched. And 
 yet mankind, even when gifted with the most scanty 
 intellectuals, is just so much the more readily awaken- 
 ed to deeper feelings of reverence for duty, the more he 
 is taught to withdraw therefrom all foreign motives that 
 self-love might otherwise thrust into the maxims of con- 
 duct ; even children are quite in a condition to detect any, 
 aye ! the smallest vestige, of an admixture of spurious with 
 the genuine springs ; whereupon actions, how seemly so- 
 ever, lose straightway in their eyes all moral worth. This 
 susceptibility for receiving impressions of the unadulterat- 
 ed moral good, admits of being so wonderfully cultiv^ated, as 
 to become stamped indelibly on the heart, when we propose 
 to their youthful notice examples of the illustrious dead, 
 and make them sit in judgment on the ethical purity or 
 impurity of their maxims, so far as that can be clearly 
 gathered from the record of their actions; — an occupation 
 of the understanding that soon gives to the naked idea 
 DUTY preponderating weight. Contrariwise, to allow one's 
 ethic pupils to wonder at deeds of virtue, even though 
 accomplished with the greatest sacrifices, is far from being 
 the right key to which the mind should be attuned, in 
 
58 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 order to bring it to a moral pitch. It is a mistake to' 
 suppose that any good, mankind may do, can surpass his 
 duty. Discliarging duty, however, is only that regularity 
 which is of the essence of a moral order of things, and 
 is consequently nothing that deserves to be wondered at. 
 Such wonder is rather mischievous in its effect, and un- 
 strings the reverential chords of duty, by representing its 
 performance, as something meritorious and extraordinary- 
 One thing, however, there is, which, when rightly ap- 
 prehended, never ceases to transfix the soul with the 
 highest possible admiration, and where such admiration 
 is not only just, but does likewise clarify and exalt the 
 soul — and that is the originary substratum for morality it- 
 self. What is that (mankind may well ask himself) where- 
 by he, dependent by so many wants on the physical system, 
 is, notwithstanding, at the same time raised so far above 
 it, by force of the idea of an original susceptibility with- 
 in, that all those wants shrink to nothing, and he him- 
 self is judged unworthy even to live, if, overcome by pain, 
 or defiled by pleasure, he incline to an enjoyment of them 
 (which yet alone can render life desirable), doing despite to a 
 law whereby Reason mightily commands, though annex- 
 ing to that behest neither bribe nor threat ? The weight 
 of this question even the most unlettered must right inly 
 feel, if at all aware of the sanctity attaching to the idea 
 Duty ; though as yet unacquainted with that amazing pro- 
 perty of our nature — Freedom* — unfolded singly from the 
 
 • The idea of our freedom is not antecedent to our consciousness of 
 the moral law, but is inferentiallv deduced from its unconditioned sway 
 over the determinableness of our choice. This any one may speedily 
 become convinced of, by merely asking himself if he is immediately 
 certain of possessing a power of vanquishing the greatest seductions to 
 transgression by dint of a forethought steadfastness of resolve, 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 59 
 
 representing of the law. And it is just the incomprehen- 
 sible of this godlike susceptibility, announcing to man his 
 celestial descent, that does, by breaking on the mind with 
 a force that cannot be resisted, swell and transfix the soul 
 with reverential emotions of the deepest and most enrap- 
 tured admiration, thereby strengthening him for whatever 
 sacrifices the awe of duty may demand. Again and again 
 to arouse this feeling of the excellent and sublime of our 
 moral destination is especially to be recommended, as the 
 chief mean of begetting moral sentiments, inasmuch as this 
 feeling directly counteracts our inborn bias to pervert the 
 order of our springs of choice ; so that, by restoring the 
 
 Phalaris licet imperet ut sis 
 Falsus, et admoto dictet perjuria tauro ; 
 
 and the answer must at once be, that he cannot tell whether, m such 
 event, he might not be shaken from his purpose. But duty demands 
 that he adhere inviolably faithful to its decrees ; hence he rightly infers 
 that he can do so, i. c. that his will is free. They who maintain that 
 this unsearchable property of our nature is quite comprehensible, de- 
 lude themselves with the word determinism {the Principie of the W"M's 
 DeterininatioH by sufficient inward grounds) ; as if the difficulty consisted 
 in combining this principle with freedom ; whereas the difficulty is, how 
 Predeterminism — whereby our voluntary actions, as events, have their 
 sufficient ground in antecedent times that are no longer within our 
 power — can consort with freedom, which last retjuires that both act and 
 its contrary be at the instant of my acting fully within my own con- 
 trol. That is what people fain would, but never will, comprehend. 
 
 There is, however, no difficulty in combining the idea freedom with 
 that of God as a necessary Being. For freedom does not consist in the 
 contingency of an act {i. e. in its being undetermined by any grounds), 
 (j. e. such a principle of ixdetekminissi as might represent good and 
 evil as equally possible divine acts, if those last are to be free), but in 
 absolute spontaneity, and thus is endangered by predeterminism alone, 
 in as much as there the determinative ground is contained in time by- 
 gone, is consequently not in my power, but in the hand of nature, and so 
 drives me irresistibly on to act. But since in the case of the Deity no 
 sequences sf time are cogitable, this difficulty entirely falls away. 
 
60 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 unconditioned reverence for the Law as the supreme 
 condition of all maxims we adopt, the originary moral 
 order may be reintroduced among the heart's ravelled 
 springs, and therewith, that the predisposition toward 
 good, at first implanted in the heart of man, may be re- 
 suscitated in its pristine purity and vigour. 
 
 But is not this redintegration of character by one's own 
 exertions, diametrically opposed by the inborn depravity 
 of man, whereby he is unfitted for good ? Doubtless ! so 
 far as the comprehensibility of such a change is con- 
 cerned ; and as for any insight into its possibility, the 
 present case is quite on a par with every other event in 
 time (change), which is itself necessary when regard is 
 had to the Physical System, and whose antipart is never- 
 theless figured, agreeably to the Moral Law, to be possi- 
 ble and realizable by freedom. Tiie position of man- 
 kind's indwelling radical evil does therefore preclude only 
 our seeing into the ground of the possibility of this self- 
 reform. It is not inconsistent with the possibility of a 
 return to good itself; for, so long as the Moral Law com- 
 mands, " Thou SHALT become a better maiii^ the conclu- 
 sion is inevitable " that thou CANST." The heart's con- 
 nate evil is a statement of no practical import in the 
 theory, i. e. neither in the elementology, nor in the di- 
 dactic of morals ; for the duties imposed by the Law 
 remain the same, and retain the same obligatory force, 
 whetlier a bias to evade them be co-extant with the Will 
 or not. But in the ascetic of morals the position does 
 say something, and yet no more than this, viz. that in 
 cultivating our concreated ethical predispositions toward 
 good, we caimot so begin, as were we by nature innocent, 
 but are constrained to set to work by counteracting a vi- 
 
ALONG WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF GOOD. 61 
 
 tiosity of choice, subverting our primeval ethical condi- 
 tion, and, because this bias is inei-adicable, by unremit- 
 tingly wrestling, and so making stand against it. Since 
 now this issues in an endless progress from bad to better, 
 it results that the converting of the sentiments of the 
 wicked, into those of the good, takes place by so changing 
 the innermost and last ground whereupon maxims of life 
 are determined on, that those last become henceforward 
 conformable to the Law, so far forth at least as this new 
 ground (the new heart) is itself immutable. A convic- 
 tion of this immutability cannot be attained by man, nei- 
 ther from the immediate witness of his conscience, nor 
 yet from proofs gathered from his experienced and ob- 
 served life, inasmuch as the depths of his heart (the last 
 subjective ground of choosing maxims) are impenetrable. 
 But upon the road leading thither, i. e. to such immutabi- 
 lity^ he must hope to get by his own exertions, whither- 
 ward indeed he is directed by his bettered sentiment, 
 now grounded and rooted in good. It behoves him to be- 
 come a good man ; and he can only be deemed morally 
 good, in regard of whatever, as done by himself, can be im- 
 puted to his account. 
 
 Against this proposal of self-amelioration. Reason, now 
 naturally disinclined to the irksomeness of any moral 
 task, seeks refuge by screening itself under the allega- 
 tion of mankind's natural imbecility, and there shield- 
 ing itself by all sorts of impure religious ideas (amongst 
 which is to be reckoned the ascribing to God greatest-hap- 
 piness-principles as the condition of his Law). Again, 
 all religions may be divided into those of mere worship 
 and THE RELIGION OF A MORAL LIFE. Agreeably to the 
 former, mankind either flatters himself that God will 
 
62 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL 
 
 provide for liis everlasting welfare, quite apart from 
 his becoming a morally better man (by remitting his 
 sins) ; or, should this last appear to him incredible, that 
 God may perhaps straightway make him better, and that 
 too independently of his own exertions, provided he only 
 earnestly beseech it by instant prayers and supplications ; 
 whereby since, in the eye of an all-seeing person, praying 
 can be nothing else than tantamount to wishing, nothing 
 need at all be done; for indeed if a wish could accom- 
 plish such a transformation, then would every one be 
 good. But upon the principles of moral religion (which, 
 amid all public ones that have hitherto appeared, the 
 Christian religion alone is), this is the unalterable de- 
 cree, " that every one must do as much as in him lies in or- 
 der to render himself a better man, and only then, when he 
 has not buried his connate talent, nor tied it up in a napkin 
 (Luke, xix. 12-20) i. e. when he has unfolded the germs 
 latent in his aboriginal susceptibilities for good, may he 
 hope, that what lies beyond his power nuiy be supplied by a 
 higher cooperation." Neither is it absolutely necessary 
 that an individual should know wherein this aid consists, 
 nor how it is afforded ; perhaps it is inevitable, that even 
 were all this revealed at some former period, other people 
 should not at some other and future period, come to frame 
 to themselves different opinions, and that too with the 
 greatest possible sincerity, about the matter. But if this 
 be so, then would this farther principle validly apply. 
 " It is not essential, and consequently not necessary, for every 
 ONE to know what God does, or may already have done for 
 his salvation ; but it is undoubtedly requisite that all should 
 know WHAT THEY THEMSELVES HAVE TO DO in order to 
 render themselves worthy of his aid." 
 
ALONG WITH THfc I'KlWClfl.E OF GOOD. G3 
 
 This general scholion is the first of those four remarks that 
 are appended, one to each book, of the present treatise, and 
 that might be superscribed respectively, (I.) Works of Grace ; 
 (2.) Miracles ; (3.) Mysteries ; (4.) Means of Grace. They are 
 the outworks (pare7'ga) of a religion within the bounds of 
 NAKED REASON ; they do not inwardly belong to it, but they are 
 immediately adjoining. Reason, conscious of its inability to satis- 
 fy all the mind's moral needs, extends itself to transcendent ideas, 
 hoping that they may make up for this defect, without however 
 vindicating any claim of possession to such more extensive ter- 
 ritorj\ Reason impugns neither the possibility nor yet the 
 EXISTENCE of objects corresponding to those ideas, but is unable 
 to adopt any motives from them either into its maxims of think- 
 ing or acting. Nay, reason rather holds, that if there be in the 
 unsearchable fields of the supersensible, anything more than it 
 can comprehend, but which were nevertheless needful to eke out 
 and fulfil our moral shortcoming, then this would stand us in 
 stead, and be made available to a good will, though all the while 
 unacquainted with the matter ; and this it trusts with a faith 
 (touching such unknown and inaccessible supersensible supply) 
 which we may call reflective ; for the dogmatical belief, 
 which gives out these pa7-ergfa as points of knowledge, appears in 
 its eye chargeable with either iiisincerify or temerity. Tlie re- 
 moval of difficulties withstanding what has its practical estab- 
 lishment in itself, is, when those difficulties give rise to transcen- 
 dent questions, no more than a very secondary affair. Again, as 
 to the detriment accruing from those worally-trajiscendent \deas, 
 when incorporated with religion, the baneful results following 
 the above-named four classes, are, (1.) the Fanaticism of sup- 
 posed inward experiences ( Works of Grace) ; (2.) the Super- 
 stition of alleged outward experience (Miracles); (3.) the 
 ILLUMINATISM of a supposcd enlightening of the eyes of the 
 imderstanding in regard of the preternatural (Mysteries) — the 
 
64 OF THE INDWELLING OF A PRINCIPLE OF EVIL. 
 
 whimseys of Adepti in search of the great secret ; (4.) the Thau- 
 MATURGY of endeavouring to act upon the supersensible {Means 
 of Grace) — all wanderings of an understanding that has strayed 
 beyond its legitimate boundar}', and that too with the fancied 
 moral view of becoming acceptable to God. Touching the above 
 general scholion to our first book, every one perceives that to 
 bring about within himself a work of grace, is just such an 
 attempt to bestride the supernatural, — a project that never en- 
 ters into the maxims of reason so long as it remains within its 
 own limits ; since the moment we have to deal with the preter- 
 natural, all use of understanding comes at once to an end. To 
 assign theoretically a test whereby to ascertain that any inward 
 mental experience is a work, not of nature, but of grace, is im- 
 possible, because our notions of cause and effect cannot be ex- 
 tended beyond what we have experienced and observed, conse- 
 quently not beyond the operations of nature, without or within 
 ourselves. Again, the hypothesis of a practical application of 
 this idea is no less self-contradictory ; for, to make any use of 
 this conception, would render pre-requisite a rule fixing what 
 we ourselves had to do in order to acquire some ulterior good. 
 A work of grace, however, signifies the very contrary, viz. that 
 the moral good is not our deed, but that of some other person, and 
 is therefore, by the very idea of it, something only to be got by 
 DOING NOTHING, which is absurd. We can therefore admit such 
 works of grace as somewhat incomprehensible ; but never can 
 they afford the groundwork of any maxims, whether regulating 
 the theoretical or practical conduct of the mind. 
 
HARMONY AND IDENTITY 
 
 NOTICES OF REASON WITH THOSE OF 
 ANY POSSIBLE REVELATION, 
 
 SHEWN IN FOUR BOOKS. 
 
 BOOK H. 
 
 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT THE GOOD AND THE EVIL 
 PRINCIPLE, FOR THE DOMINION OVER MAN. 
 
BOOK IL 
 
 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT THE GOOD AND THE 
 EVIL PRINCIPLE. 
 
 EXORDIUM. 
 
 That, id order to become morally good men, it is not 
 enough to allow the germs of good implanted in our race 
 to develope themselves with unimpeded force, but that it 
 is further requisite for us to encounter an opposing cause 
 of evil, — is a matter that the Stoics did pre-eminently be- 
 yond all Moralists of Antiquity declare loudly by their 
 watchword virtue, which alike in Greek and Latin signi- 
 fies FORTITUDE or VALOUR, and does consequently remind 
 us that there is an enemy to be overcome. Regarded in 
 this point of view, virtue is a most praiseworthy name, 
 notwithstanding its having been often boastfully abused, 
 and, more lately still, sneeringly derided. For, to summon 
 up to valour, is almost tantamount to infusing it; as, on 
 the other hand, a lazy self-distrusting reason, pusillani- 
 mously waiting for exterior aids in points of ethic and 
 religion, not only unnerves every energy of the mind, but 
 even renders man unworthy of such help. 
 
 But those sturdy Sages mistook their enemy, who is 
 not to be sought in the natural, and, though undisciplined. 
 
68 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 Still openly displayed and undisguised, appetites of tlio 
 sensory ; for the inward foe is an invisible occult enemy, 
 lurking behind the ambushes of reason, and upon that 
 account just so much the more dangerous and deadly. 
 Theyf called on wisdom to make a stand against folly, 
 which allows itself unawares to be inveigled and worsted 
 by the sensory, instead of calling upon her to wage war 
 
 ■f- These philosophers derived their supreme moral principle from the 
 Dignity of Human Nature, viz freedom, or the mind's independency on 
 the force of appetite ; and one better or more noble they could not have 
 proceeded on. The laws of morality they then immediately deduced 
 from reason, thus alone legislatory, and by them unconditionally com- 
 manding. Here everything was properly adjusted, not only objective/;/, 
 as regards the rule, but likewise subjectively, with respect to the spring, 
 of action : provided only we ascribe to man the incorrupted will to adopt 
 without delay those laws into his maxims. But in this latter supposi- 
 tion lay their cardinal error ; for, however early we may throw our in- 
 quiring eye over man's moral state, we immediately perceive that with his 
 affairs it is no longer res Integra ; but that a beginning must be made by 
 dislodging evil from possessions it has usurped (a usurpation that never 
 could have taken place, had we not ourselves willingly received it into 
 our maxims), i. e. that the first real good we can do, is to come forth 
 out of an evil estate, extant not in our appetites and wants, but in a 
 ])erverse maxim chosen by freedom. Appetites do no more than throw 
 difficulties in the way of executing maxims that may happen to thwart 
 them : whereas evil consists properly herein, vis. that mankind wills 
 not to withstand those appetites when these last invite to transgression ; 
 which evil-mindedness it is strictly that is the true inward enemy. Ap- 
 petites are merely opposed to fixt principles generally, indifferently 
 whether those principles be good or evil, and hence that generous sys- 
 tem of antiquity is as a pre-exercitory discipline of aj)petite whatso- 
 ever, useful toward the moderating and self-government of the indi- 
 vidual by stable maxims. But, in so far as there ought to be specific 
 PRINCIPLES of the moral good within, which as yet are not, then must 
 a very different enemy be pre-supposed, whom virtue has to encounter, 
 —apart from which sustained warfare, all virtues are not indeed, as the 
 Church-Father had it, »7<»n»M^'- sins, but dazzliiitr frailties ; since thereby 
 tiic uproar itself is only sometimes hushed, while the Heads of the sedi- 
 tioii remain unquclled and at large. 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 69 
 
 upon the wickedness of the human heart, which, by 
 soul-destroying principles, secretly saps and undermines 
 the moral fortresses of the soul. 
 
 Our natural appetites are considered in themselves good, 
 i. e. irreproachable, and it is not only fruitless, but even 
 hurtful and blame- worthy, to attempt to extirpate them ; 
 they need only to be tamed, lest they encroach upon or 
 overthrow each other, and so be prevented from harmonis- 
 ing toward ttieir whole and common last end — happiness. 
 Reason, when administering this physical interest of well- 
 being, is called prudence. Only the morally illegal is 
 in itself bad, absolutely objectionable, and to be eradicat- 
 ed. Reason, when teaching how this is to be done, and, 
 still more fitly, when exerting this information into act, 
 deserves and obtains the name of wisdom, in comparison 
 wherewith vice may certainly be termed folly; but only 
 then, when reason finds herself strong enough not merely 
 to HATE and arm herself against it as an object of terror, 
 but thoroughly to despise its charms and artful entangle- 
 ments. 
 
 When, consequently, the Stoics painted to themselv^es 
 man's ethical Olympiad as a mere wrestle or gymnastic 
 with his (otherwise harmless) desires and aversions, so far 
 forth as these latter hinderances of his inward freedom 
 were to be overthrown ; then, since they assumed no par- 
 ticular positively evil principle, the cause of transgres- 
 sion could only be placed in reason's neglecting to meet 
 them on the battle-field. But since, farther, this omission 
 is itself contrary to duty {i. e. transgression), its ground 
 cannot (without explaining in a circle) be again placed in 
 the appetites and wants, but only therein, where will's free 
 choice is determinable {i. e. in the inmost last ground of 
 
70 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 appoiutiug rules of life, which rules are observed to have 
 conspired with the incJinatious). This being the case, we 
 easily understand how an inevitable though unwelcome 
 explanation, whose last ground must remain perpetually 
 shrouded within the veil of the impenetrable,! should in- 
 duce philosophers to mistake the actual enemy of good, 
 against wiiom they thought a contest was to be main- 
 tainiid. 
 
 None need, therefore, be surprised that an Apostle 
 should have represented this unseen soul-devastatiiig 
 enemy, known only by his effects upon us, as external to 
 our frame, and more particularly as an evil spirit. ^^ For 
 we wrestle not against flesh and blood {our NJTVRAL in- 
 clinations), but against the principalities and powers of 
 spiritual wickedness ; — that we may be able to stand againM 
 the wiles of the devil" (Ephes. vi. 12 and 11) ; an expres- 
 sion that does not appear designed to extend our knowledge 
 beyond the barriers of the world of sense, but to assist us to 
 envisage, for a practical behoof, a notion of the unfathom- 
 able supersensible. For, to all practical ends it is quite the 
 
 ■f Moral philosophers commonly imagine that the existence of evil in 
 our race admits of easy explication, from the violence of the sensitive 
 springs on the one haiul, and the impotency of the rational springs {rcte. 
 reKce) on the other; i. e. is to be accounted for from the fraii.tt or weak- 
 ness of our nature. But then the Moral Good (as to its last ground in 
 the ethical predisposition of our personality) ought to be still more easily 
 explicable ; for the comprehensibility of the one, apart from that of the 
 other, is absolutely incogitable, whereas Reason's power of mastering all 
 opposing springs by the naked idea of a law is utterly inexplicable ; and 
 it is equally incomprehensible how the springs of the sensory ever could 
 gain the ascendency over a preceptive faculty invested with such autho- 
 rity. And, indeed, if every one acted agreeably to the requirements of 
 the law, then it would be said that all followed a common order, neither 
 would it occur to any one to inquire into the cause of this uniformitv. 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 71 
 
 same whether we place our Seducer within or also at tlie 
 same time without us. Our guilt is the same in either 
 *vent, in as much as we could not fall by his extraneous 
 seduction were we not already secretly banded and in 
 league with him ;f an affair we shall consider under the 
 two following heads. 
 
 •j- It is a distinguishing characteristic of the ethic of Christianity, that 
 it represents Moral Good as distant from Moral Evil, not as heaven 
 from EARTH, but as heaven from hell ; a mode of speech figurative, 
 no doubt, and as such revolting, but which is nevertheless, in its spirit 
 and intendment, philosophically correct. It serves to prevent us from 
 regardinggood and evil — the kingdoms of light and darkness — as conter- 
 minous, and as merging gradually into one another, through impercep- 
 tible shades of perpetually decreasing or increasing luminosity, and sug- 
 gests to us, that those realms are disjoined by an immeasurable gulf. 
 The total dissimilarity and repugnancy of the maxims whereby man is 
 rendered a subject in one or other of these kingdoms, viewed in connec- 
 tion with the danger run of imagining any cognationship betwixt the 
 properties that fit mankind for one or other of those abodes, entitle us to 
 employ these symbolical representations, which are at once dreadful, and 
 at the same time exceedingly sublime. 
 
72 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 \ 
 
 APOTOME r. 
 
 OF THE TITLE OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE TO RULE OVER 
 MANKIND. 
 
 A. Impersonated Idea of the Good Principle. 
 
 Mankind (^. e. Agent-IntelHgents generally), in his 
 ENTIRE MORAL PERFECTION, is that alonc wliicli can ren- 
 der a universe tlie object of a divine decree, and be tbe 
 end of its creation ; to which morality as a supreme con- 
 dition, liappiness is immediately attached by the Will of 
 the Most High. This Intelligent is the only-beloved of 
 God — " the same was in the beginning with God.''* The 
 idea of such Person emanates from God's very essence, and 
 is therefore no created thing, but his only-begotten Son. 
 *' The Word (the Fiat !) whereby all things were made, 
 and without which was not amj thing made that is made." 
 For his sake, i. e. for the sake of Intelligents, cogitated 
 agreeably to the fulfilment of their moral destiny, every 
 thing has been created. " He is the brightness of his Fa- 
 ther's glory" — " In him God loved the world ;" and only 
 through him, and by adopting his sentiments, can we hope 
 to become " children of God.'' 
 
 Self-elevation to this ideal of moral perfection, i. e. 
 to the archetype of moral sentiments in their entire pu- 
 rity, is obviously a duty incumbent upon all men, to 
 which ascent, the idea itself, as objected to us by reason 
 for our imitation, gives power. But since we are not the 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 73 
 
 authors of this ideal (and since, on the contrary, it lias 
 taken up its abode in human nature without our being 
 able to explain our susceptibility for the indwelling of 
 such an occupant), it may perhaps be more appropriately 
 said, that that archetype has come down from heaven to 
 us, and assumed our humanity (for it is not so easy to 
 figure to ourselves how man, who is by nature bad, 
 should strip off his evil, and raise himself to a conformity 
 with the Ideal of Holiness, as it is to hold that the latter 
 has invested itself with humanity {a thing not in itself 
 evil), and condescended unto it). This union with us 
 may thei'efore be regarded as a state of humiliation of 
 the Son of God, when we figure to ourselves such a 
 godlike-minded person as may be our archetype, taking 
 upon him a multitude of sorrows, although himself holy, 
 and therefore exempt from their sufferance, merely with 
 the view of advancing our Sovereign Good ; whereas man- 
 kind, who never is free from guilt, must, even after he 
 has adopted the sentiments of that ideal, regard whatever 
 sorrows may afflict him, in whatever way, as his merited 
 desert (i. e. as no undue humiliation? Tr.), and must con- 
 sequently deem himself unworthy of entering into an al- 
 liance with such an idea, although this last serves for his 
 archetype. 
 
 The ideal of humanity as acceptable to God {i. e. the 
 idea of an ethical perfection, so far forth as this last may 
 be possible for finite Agent-Intelligents shackled by wants 
 and appetites) can only be cogitated by the representation 
 of a person ready and willing to discharge all the offices 
 of humanity, who not only by doctrine and example 
 spreads abroad the utmost amount of good, but does fur- 
 ther, although assaulted by the highest temptations, un- 
 
74 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 dergo for the sake of the whole world, his enemies not ex- 
 cepted, the greatest miseries, even an ignominious death. 
 Thus would the matter seem to he figured; for we can 
 frame to ourselves no notion of the degree and momentum 
 of a force, such as is the vis insita of a moral sentiment, 
 except by observing it warring against antagonists, and 
 standing, amid the greatest possible invasions and extre- 
 mities, unvanquished and victorious. 
 
 Through a practical faith in this Son of God (fi- 
 gured as having taken upon him our nature), mankind 
 may hope to become acceptable to God {and so to enter 
 into everlasting bliss), i. e. he who is conscious of such 
 moral sentiments within, as enable him to believe and to 
 place in himself a well-grounded trust, that he could, un- 
 der any similar temptations and griefs (considered as the 
 test and touchstone of the genuineness of that idea), ad- 
 here unchangeably to the archetype of humanity, and re- 
 main true to the exemplar by a steady following of his 
 footsteps — such a person, I say, and he alone, is entitled 
 to look upon himself as one who may be an object not un- 
 worthy of the Divine complacency. 
 
 B. Objective Reality of this Idea. 
 
 This idea's reality is, in a practical point of view, con- 
 tained completely in itself, for it has its rise and spring 
 from our morally legislative Reason. We ought to con- 
 form ourselves to it ; consequently we can. Needed we 
 first of all to prove the possibility of our bec<miing con- 
 formable to this archetype, as is absolutely indispen- 
 sable in the case of our notions of the physical system, 
 Jest we be misled by empty phantasms, to which nothing 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 75 
 
 given can ever correspond ; then must we, by parity oH 
 reason, pause before we admitted the claim of the Moral 
 Law to be the unconditionally sufficient determinative of 
 our choice ; for how it comes to pass that the bare idea of 
 iaw whatsoever should be a far more weighty mover of the 
 will than any utilitarian considerations, cannot be made 
 comprehensible by reason, nor corroborated by observa- 
 tion and experience : for, touching the first, the Law's 
 behest is unconditional ; and as for the second, even sup- 
 posing that there never yet had been a man who rendered 
 unqualified obedience to tlie Law, the objective necessity 
 of becoming thus unconditionally obedient, shines the same 
 with self-evidence undiminished. We need, therefore, no 
 examples from experience and observation, in order to con- 
 stitute, that ideal of humanity whereby alone man is ac- 
 ceptable to God, our pre-appointed archetype. It is already 
 extant in the ideal archetypes of reason. Farther, who- 
 soever should, previously to his acknowledging any one 
 to be in harmony with that idea, and a fit exemplar for imi- 
 tation, demand more than an unrebukable and well-de- 
 serving life, open to every one's inspection ; whoso should 
 besides crave signs and wonders performed by him or upon 
 him for his credentials, would thereby proclaim his own 
 moral unbelief, viz, his want of belief in virtue, — a de- 
 fect not to be supplied by any faith grounded on mira- 
 culous supports : for this Faith could only be Historical, 
 whereas the belief in the practical validity of that idea, 
 as seated in reason, alone possesses moral worth ; and this 
 idea it is, that must first accredit miracles as signs from 
 on high, not the idea, that from them, is to receive its con- 
 firmation. 
 
 Upon this same account, the records of experience ought 
 
76 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 to be able to set forth, as a historical fact, the given and 
 displayed example of some one who had realized this ideal 
 (so far, at least, as we can extract evidence of one's in- 
 ward moral sentiments from his exterior deportment), al- 
 though, properly speaking, the law would entitle us to 
 expect from every one an ectypal transcript of this idea, 
 whereof the Prototijpe resides at all times, veiled and la- 
 tent, in the deeply hidden sanctuary of our own reason, 
 in as much as neither experience nor example can ade- 
 quately or exhaustively depicture it, those last not unfold- 
 ing to view the inmost sentiment of the person, and allow- 
 ing us only to conclude upon it, and that uncertainly. 
 (Even mankind's own inward observation of himself does 
 not so enable him to envisage the depths of his heart, that 
 he can attain a confident, settled, and unchanging convic- 
 tion of the purity and fixity of the maxims he professes.) 
 And if a person really endowed with such godlike sen- 
 timents had at any given epoch appeared, descending as 
 IT WERE, from heaven to earth, who in doctrine, life, and 
 death, had fully set forth the exemplary pattern of a 
 course of life acceptable to God, to the utmost possible ex- 
 tent that outward experience will admit, — the archetype 
 of such conduct being, as we have said, extant, and to be 
 sought for, in naked reason only, — and had he in conse- 
 quence of this his chai-acter and doctrine, achieved a most 
 gigantic revolution in the destinies of our race, scatter- 
 ing abroad the undecaying seeds of a yet uncomputed 
 and indeed incomputable moral good ; still that ought not 
 to give us cause to look upon him as any thing else than 
 a naturally-begotten man, seeing that each individual must 
 recognise and feel himself bound to let the light of a simi- 
 larly bright example so shine before him, although by this 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL TRINCIPLE. 77 
 
 I do not mean to assert simpliciter that he may not per- 
 chance have been a preternaturally begotten Being. In a 
 practical point of view, the supernaturalist hypothesis can 
 benefit us nothing, since the archetype subjected by us in 
 thought, to this phenomenon is to be found in ourselves 
 (though ordinary men) ; and the existence of this ideal in 
 the human soul is in itself sufficiently incomprehensible, 
 without our multiplying difficulties by holding it, in addi- 
 tion to its supersensible original, hypostatised in a particu- 
 lar individual; on the contrary, the advancement of this 
 Holy One above the weaknesses of human nature, would, 
 — so far as we can see, — rather impede than assist this idea 
 in exciting our generous emulation to attain it. For how 
 perfectly human soever we cogitate the physical consti- 
 tution of this morally perfect man, what though he be in- 
 vested with the same wants, and exposed to the same mi- 
 series, and temptations to transgression with ourselves ; 
 still, if he is represented as thus far superhuman as, by a 
 purity of will not earned, but immutable and ingenite, to 
 be absolutely exalted beyond the possibility of a lapse, 
 then must this enormous elongation from the common 
 class of men remove him to so infinite a distance, that 
 this godlike man would cease to be fitly proposed to us as 
 an exemplar. Mankind might, in such event, say, let 
 there be given to me a thoroughly holy will, and every 
 seduction to evil must of itself come to nought ; give me 
 a perfect inward conviction, that after a brief career on 
 earth, I by force of this connate holiness shall straight- 
 way enter into possession of the everlasting glories of the 
 heavenly kingdom, then will I not only willingly but joy- 
 ously undertake and stand out all grief and pain, how bit- 
 ter soever, even up to the most contumelious death, see- 
 
78 OF THE COMBAT BETVVrXT 
 
 ing, as I do, in near prospect the exhilarating and glorifietf 
 result. And though unquestionably the cogitation — that 
 this godlike person was from everlasting, in the actual pos- 
 session of those excelsities and beatitudes, and needed not 
 to earn tlieni by these his sorrows, — that he voluntarily 
 divested himself of such celestial splendours for the sake 
 of the unworthy, even for his enemies, in order to rescue 
 them from everlasting ruin, — must determine our minds 
 to admiration, love, and gratitude toward him, — and al- 
 though the idea of a deportment regulated upon so per- 
 fect a standard of morality would by all means be valid for 
 us as a behest to be observed, still he himself could not 
 be represented as a pattern for our imitation, nor conse- 
 quently as any evidence to us of the practicability and at- 
 tainableness of so pure and exalted a moral good.f 
 
 f The limits of the human understanding prevent us from figuring to 
 ourselves any considerable personal worth in the actions of another, un- 
 less we have them represented to us after a human fasliion ; but then 
 such figurative representation ought never to be understood as implying 
 that so the matter (xar' «x»i9uav) is, in real fact and event. In order to 
 cogitate supersensible properties, we need always to think them accord- 
 ing to an analogy with phj'sical entities. It is thus that our philoso])hi- 
 cal poet ascribes a higher rank to man, in consequence of his bias to evil, 
 at least in so far as he tights against and overcomes it ; than to those 
 celestial spirits who, by force of the sanctity of their nature, are exalted 
 beyond the possibility of seduction — {This world, u'itfi all Ut faults, it bet- 
 ter than a realm of will-less angels — Halier.) Even the Scripture accom- 
 modates itself to this mode of speech, when, explaining to us the intensity 
 of the love borne by God toward the human race, it speaks of his having 
 submitted to the utmost sacrifice that a loving Being can undergo in order 
 to render even the unworthy happy (" So God loved the world," &c.) : for 
 reason caiuiot comprehend in any way how a self-suHicient Being can give 
 up part of what constitutes its own bliss, and deprive itself of its own 
 possessions. This is an analogical schematism indispensable for illus- 
 trating the matter ; but when turned into a Sclietnalliin or F.ffigiation for 
 detcrmining an object, it becomes ANTHBoroMonrHisM, which is of the 
 most hurtful consequences in religion — I may here remark, Ihat in pass- 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL I'RINCIPLE. 79 
 
 .likich a godlike-minded, tliough still perfectly humau 
 teacher, might nevertheless M'itli the greatest propriety 
 speak of himself as if the ideal of morality dwelt in him 
 bodily, and were fully set forth in his doctrine and life. 
 In using such an expression, he would allude only to the 
 turn of thinking adopted by him as the regulator of his 
 actions ; but since these rules of life cannot be forthwith 
 held up to others as exemplars, being in themselves in- 
 visible, and capable of outward protraiture only by ac- 
 tion and instruction, he might very well say of himself 
 wJiich of you accuseth me of sin ; for it is but equitable to 
 ascribe that blameless example of a teacher, which illus- 
 trates his tenets, to nothing but the purest motives, so 
 long as those tenets treat only of what, at any rate, i& 
 every person's duty, and all grounds are awanting for 
 suspecting him of by-views. A cast of thinking such as 
 now described, ready to forego and undergo every thing". 
 
 ing from the sensible to the supersensible it is quite allowable to sche- 
 matise (j. e, explain a conception by help of the analogy it may bear to 
 somewhat sensible) ; but it is quite disallowed analogically to conclude 
 that what belongs to the one can be predicated of the other. To take an 
 instance : I cannot infer that, because I cannot depicture to myself in 
 thought the cause of a plant except by comparing it with the relation ob- 
 taining betwixt an Artist and his Work (c. g. a watch), i. e. by ascribing 
 intelligence to such cause, — it cannot, I say, be inferred, that therefore 
 the cause of the plant (or of the material universe generally), does itself 
 possess understanding ; i- e. I am not entitled to say that intelligence, 
 which is a hypothesis necessary for my private explaining to myself the 
 growth and structure of a plant, is likewise a condition precedent of the 
 possibility of the existence and action of such cause itself The relation 
 obtaining betwixt a symbol and a notion, bears no analogy Avhatever to 
 the relation obtaining betwixt that symbol and the thing indicated by 
 the notion ; and to pass from one to the other is ingens saltus {i^na.f:ia(ni vt. 
 «xx» yi\ioi), plunging us at once into the aliysses of anthropomorphism — 
 the argiiments proving which assertion, I have expounded elsewhere al 
 length. 
 
80 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 in order to forward the general interests of the race, 
 figured as extant in an Ideal of Humanity, is valid for all 
 men, at all times, and throughout all worlds, in the eye of 
 Supreme Justice, whenever mankind makes, as he ought, 
 his own real sentiments conformable to the archetype 
 thus cogitated in idea. Doubtless this will ever remain a 
 righteousness not our own, so far forth as our own right- 
 eousness ought to consist in sentiments fully commen- 
 surate to the prototype, and in a thence arising course 
 of life tallying with faultless exactness to the standard. 
 There must, however, be an appropriation of this right- 
 eousness possible for a person who leads a good life, when 
 viewed in connection with its prototype sentiment ; al- 
 though to make this appropriation comprehensible, is at- 
 tended with very great difficulties, which we now set our- 
 selves to expound and remove. 
 
 C. Difficuities contrary to the reality of this Idea, together 
 with their Solution. 
 
 The first difficulty, suggesting doubts as to the attain- 
 ableness of this idea, viz. that of a Humanity morally ac- 
 ceptable to God, springs from the holiness of the law- 
 giver, taken in connection with the defective state of our 
 own righteousness. The law says. Be holy (in your life 
 and conversation) as your FatJier which is in Heaven is 
 Holy ; for that is the Ideal of the Son of God proposed 
 to us as our archetype. But the distance of the good we 
 liave to attain, from the evil we quit, is infinite, and can 
 consequently not be passed over in any given time ; ne- 
 vertheless, the moral economy of man is destined to coin- 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 81 
 
 cide with the sacrosanct requirements of the law. This 
 harmony must consequently be looked upon as taking 
 place in the sentiments, i. e. in that universal and pure 
 maxim of obedience, whence, as a germ, all good is to be 
 unfolded-^a change of character which, being duty, is 
 certainly possible. Here, then, lies the difficulty. How 
 can the sentiment, or formality of the intent, come in the 
 room of deeds that are at all times (not throughout the 
 whole of absolute time, but at each point of time) faulty ? 
 and the solution is, that good conduct, regarded as a con- 
 stant progression from bad to better in infinitum, must al- 
 ways be estimated by us as defective, in as much as the 
 law of cause and effect fetters us to the conditions of time ; 
 whence also it happens that our good deeds, made exhibi- 
 tive as phenomena, must at all times be held as discon- 
 form to the Holy Law. The Searcher of the Heart, how- 
 ever, tests the supersensible sentiment whence such ac- 
 tions flow, and may therefore be cogitated as regarding, 
 in his pure intellectual intuition, such endless progres- 
 sion as a completed whole,* and so as somewhat perfect. 
 Thus may mankind trust, notwithstanding his perpetual 
 shortcoming, that he may, on the whole, be well pleasing 
 to God, in what point of time soever his existence may 
 be terminated. 
 
 * To prevent mistakes, it may be necessary to add, that the above 
 does not by any means intend to say, that a virtuous sentiment can com- 
 pensate for our failing in duty, or serve as an indemnity for the actual 
 evil extant in this endless series ; what is said is, that the sentiment 
 which comes in the room of the totality of this indefinite approxima- 
 tion, can supply those defects only, inseparable from the finite existence 
 of Intelligents in time, viz. those defects arising from their never being 
 fully, what they are only always on the point of becoming. The question 
 of compensating positive transgressions falls under the third difficulty. 
 
 F 
 
82 OF THE COMBAT BETWJXT 
 
 The SECOND difficulty emergiDg, when we contrast the 
 aspirations of mankind after good, witli the divine 
 RIGHTEOUSNESS, touclies the reaching this moral good it- 
 self — a state of moral welfare, consisting in the reality 
 and CONSTANCY of an ever onward persevering (and kept 
 from falling) sentiment in good, widely different from 
 PHYSICAL WELL-BEING, understood as contentedness with 
 one's outward state, liberation from evils, and enjoyment 
 of perpetually increasing pleasures. For an uninterrupt- 
 ed striving after the kingdom of God,^ could one become con- 
 fidently assured of the unchangeableness of such a turn 
 of mind, would be tantamount to already knowing one's 
 self to have entered into it; after which mankind might 
 assuredly trust that *' all other things (requisite for exter- 
 nal comfort) would undoubtedly be added unto him." 
 
 A soul solicitous on this point, might no doubt be com- 
 forted, when told, " The Spirit beareth witness with our 
 spirit" &c. ; that is to say, whoever cherishes sufficiently 
 pure sentiments, must of himself be inwardly aware that 
 he never again can fall so low as to be in love with evil ; 
 and yet to trust to such supposed feelings of supersensible 
 origin is rather a perilous undertaking. Never are people 
 more apt to deceive themselves than when open to be mis- 
 led by their own favourable self-opinion. Neither does it 
 seem advisable to summon mankind up to any such confi- 
 dence ; but rather more conducive to morality " to work 
 out our salvation with fear and trembling" (a hard saying, 
 which, misunderstood, may goad man on to the blackest 
 fanaticism). And yet if bereft of all confidence in our 
 once adopted maxims, scarcely could we persist in our in- 
 tended course. But this assurance enters of itself, with- 
 out having recourse either to a sweet or an anxious fana- 
 
THE GOOD AND THK EVIL PRINCIPLE. 83 
 
 ticisiu, from observing the harmony obtaining betwixt our 
 life and previously adopted purpose ; for an individual 
 who throughout a considerable tract of time has seen his 
 forethought principles exerted into act, and is thence en- 
 abled to conclude, with tolerable certainty, upon a radical 
 reformation of his character, may reasonably hope that 
 this advancement, provided only its inward principle be 
 good, will so confirm and augment the elastic force where- 
 with he still presses forward to what is better — as not only 
 to prevent him from quitting while on earth the narrow 
 path of virtue, and urge him with more courageous and 
 unimpeded footstep thitherward — but also, should an- 
 other life yet await him, still to carry him onward in the 
 same direction toward the unapproachable goal of moral 
 excellence ; since, from his own inward experience and 
 observation, he may look upon his character as radically 
 altered. On the contrary, he who, notwithstanding many 
 an attempt at moral amendment, never yet steadfastly 
 persevered in good, but fell perpetually back into evil ; or 
 who perhaps is even inwardly aware of having slidden far- 
 ther, as life advanced, downwards along the devious slope 
 from bad to worse ; cannot reasonably entertain the small- 
 est hope, that he would, either in this, or another life, con- 
 duct himself better, inasmuch as those malignant symp- 
 toms would show that moral corruption had struck deep 
 root in his inmost sentiments. In such circumstances, 
 every one perceives that the former would obtain a vista 
 into an unboundedly opening and happy futurity ; the lat- 
 ter, again, a vista into just as illimitably increasing and 
 dimensionless a misery ; which two prospects are for us 
 mankind, so far as we can judge, views into a blessed or 
 cursed eternity. Suggestions, enough startling and mighty. 
 
84 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 to tranquillize and fortify the one in good, as well as to 
 arouse in the other, the condemning voice of conscience, 
 calling on him to halt in his wicked career ; nay, such 
 cogency as springs, do those subjective representations 
 possess, as to supersede the necessity of laying down ob- 
 jectively the dogmatical position, that at death, man's fu- 
 ture destiny becomes then everlastingly foredoomedf for 
 
 •f- The question, whether the pains of Hell are finite or eternal, is a 
 CHILDISH question, i. e. one which, though answered, could benefit the 
 querist nothing. Were the former alternative taught, then would there 
 be too much ground to fear, that most (as indeed is the case with ali. 
 who believe in purgatory) would, like the sailor in Moore's Travels, say, 
 " Well, ril do my best to stand it out." Again, were the other alternative 
 supported, and incorporated with the Church-Creed, then might, even 
 contrary to the intent aimed at by such doctrine, result to the vicious a 
 hope of complete impunity, even after the most abandoned life. The 
 clergyman called to the death-bed of one whose late though avenging 
 conscience urges him to seek advice and consolation, feels it cruel and 
 inhuman to announce eternal reprobation as his lot ; and since betwixt 
 this last and plenary absolution no intermediary is admitted by his 
 creed — his church teaching that the culprit is to be punished either ettr. 
 nally or not at all, — he endeavours to ins[>ire him with hope that his 
 guilt may be forgiven, and promises to transform him in all haste into a 
 new man acceptable to God ; and as time is now no more for entering 
 on a walk and conversation well-pleasing to his Judge, rueful confessions, 
 formulas of faith, and vows of amendment if life be spared, are brought 
 in as means to prop up his fainting heart. This is the certain and ine- 
 vitable consequence whenever the eternity of the future doom ad- 
 judged to us as the due recompense of our earthly life is set forth as a 
 DOGMA ; and mankind are not rather told to frame to themselves a no- 
 tion of their hereafter ethical estate, from a careful estimate of their pre- 
 sent and previous deportment, and to regard such future lot as the spon- 
 taneously arising and naturally to be anticipated consequence of the 
 other. The sight-outrunning extent of the series of sequents to be up- 
 prehended, while under the Dominion of the Principle of Evil, will take 
 as effective ethical a purchase on the mind as were that series aullienti- 
 cally proclaimed to be interminable; without, however, drawing after it 
 the disadvantages attendant on this portentous dogma (to which, by the 
 way, neither grounds of reason nor warrants of Holy Writ furnish a 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 85 
 
 either good or evil, — a fancied knowledge, that only in- 
 duces the human understanding to overstep the bounds of 
 
 title). As a specimen of these disadvantages we may" note, that since 
 the wicked, even while alive, counts beforehand on this ultimately and 
 easily to be accepted pardon ; or, when life is drawing to an end, thinks 
 he has only to do with the claim of God's justice against him, that is to 
 be appeased by words and formularies ; it results that the rights of man- 
 kind are violated with disregard, and no one ever re-acquires possession 
 of his own : a result this, from those forms of expiation, so extremely 
 common, that an instance to the contrary is almost unheard of; where- 
 as the other vista into the unknown and unfathomable recesses of his 
 awaiting destiny naturally prompt him to repair and counteract what 
 he has done, as much as possible, in order that the effects flowing from his 
 evil deeds may, while he is yet alive, be to the very uttermost obliter- 
 ated. Is there any one who may perchance think that Reason will not, 
 before life has ebbed, prefer against a sinner a sufficiently stern indict- 
 ment at the bar of his own conscience ; if such there be, he would, I ap- 
 prehend, err exceedingly ; for, just because reason is free, its sentence 
 over man cannot be corrupted or bribed. When conscience resumes her 
 rights, and her avenging ministers bring forth in array man's register of 
 crime, and suggest to him, while engaged with this dark review, that he 
 may speedily stand before his Judge, then needs he only to be left to 
 the forebodings of his own thoughts, which, in my opinion, will judge 
 
 him with the uttermost severity 1 have only one or two remarks to 
 
 add. The popular adage, " all's well that ends well," cannot be 
 applied to Morals, unless indeed we understand by a good termination, 
 such a close as consists in the person himself becoming a truly good man. 
 But how is any one to know he has become good, seeing that tliis wish- 
 ed-for transformation can only be inferred from the good course of life 
 it subsequently brings forth ; for which, at the end of life, no farther 
 space remains. Of happiness, the remark may hold very well : and yet 
 even then, only when regard is had to the station whence we review our 
 life, viz. not from its commencement, but from its close. Past griefs 
 leave no painful reminiscences behind when once we know ourselves se- 
 cured against their return : their departure rather makes way for a 
 gladness that enhances the zest of present good, in as much as pleasure 
 and pain, being seated in the sensory, and floating on the stream of time, 
 vanish with this last's lapse. Neither can they be held to constitute one 
 whole with that happiness of which we are at present in the fruition, but 
 are, on the contrary', expelled and displaced by the now existing occupant 
 
86 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 all allowed insight. A good and pure sentiment (which 
 may be called a good spirit governing us), whereof we 
 are conscious, guides consequently to a conviction of its 
 permanency and steadfastness, although it does so medi- 
 ately only — and is the Comforter {Paraclete) re-assuring 
 
 of time. If, however, this brocaid be understood to refer to a moral es- 
 timate of life, then may mankind go very far wrong indeed, if he think- 
 all well because good actions have wound up its close. The subjective 
 moral principle — (thecast of thinking, or sentimekt) — which alone gives 
 or deprives his character of worth, is as somewhat supersensible, not capable 
 of being frittered down into fragments of time, but must be cogitated as 
 an umim quid, or absolute unity ; and since we can only conclude upon our 
 sentiments from actions which are the phenomena of those sentiments, 
 we must, in any such general estimate, take our whole life into consider, 
 ation ; and then the reproaches of conscience, arising from the earlier part 
 of life (previous to repentance), may perhaps drown the self-applause be- 
 stowed on the later, and go far to stifle the triumphant exclamation, alVs 
 
 •well that ends well. There is connected with the doctrine of eternal 
 
 punishment another tenet, closely allied, but not identic with it, viz. 
 the dogma that " all sins must beforg^iven herey Our reckoning is final] v 
 summed up when we quit this world — as the tree falls, it must lie ; and 
 no one may hope yonder to overtake what he has neglected here. There 
 is, however, just as little room for confidently asserting this last position 
 as the former ; it is nothing more than a principle employed by Practical 
 Reason for regulating the use it makes of its notions of the supersensible, 
 reason remaining all the while perfectly aware that we are totally in the 
 dark as to the objective properties of such supersensible; all that reason 
 intends by such a suggestion, is to remind us that since we can infer from 
 our past walk and conversation singly, whether or not we are acceptable 
 to God, and since our allotted space of earthly probation ends when we 
 go hence, we have cause to regard our account as closed, and are led to 
 draw out a balance-sheet to see whether we can then liold ourselves jus- 
 tified or not. Generally speaking, were we, instead of aiming at prin- 
 ciples CONSTITUENT of knowledge of supersensible objects, contentedly 
 to confine our judgmant to uegulative principles that acquiesce in 
 their own possible practical use, then would human wisdom be a great 
 gainer, and mankind would cease to hatch broods of supposed knowledge 
 where nothing can be known ; that after all do, in the end, turn out 
 highly pernicious to morality. 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 87 
 
 US, when backslidings make us apprehensive of its con- 
 stancy. Certain knowledge is, on such a point, unattain- 
 able by man ; neither is it, as far as we can see, morally 
 desirable. For (be it well noted) this assurance cannot 
 be founded on any immediate consciousness of the un- 
 changeableness of our sentiments, these being no object 
 of intuition ; it can only be inferred from their effects 
 experienced and observed in our daily life — a conclusion 
 drawn from the phenomena of that good and evil sentiment, 
 and therefore incapable of acquainting us certainly with 
 the vis insita of its causal strength. This deficiency must 
 be still more sensibly felt, when the change of character 
 has taken place only toward the close of life ; for then 
 those a posteriori proofs of its sincerity altogether fall 
 away, no sufficient trajectory of moral walk and conver- 
 sation being given, that might serve as a groundwork 
 whereon to rear a satisfactory judgment touching one's 
 moral worth; and inconsolableness (which, however, 
 the nature of man, and the obscurity of all trans-sepul- 
 chral matters, prevent from passing into wild despair) 
 must inevitably spring from any rational estimate that 
 such a person can make of his moral state. 
 
 The THIRD, and, as it would seem, the greatest difficul- 
 ty, that must stand in the way of all men, even after they 
 have struck into the paths of good, and that must repre- 
 sent, as wanting, when weighed in the balance of divine 
 justice, the sum-total of our actions, is as follows. Not- 
 withstandiug the adoption of a good sentiment, and with 
 what constancy soever mankind may have persisted in 
 acting on it, still he began from evil ; and this prior 
 guilt he never can abolish. That, after a change of 
 heart, no new debts are contracted, can never pass for 
 
8» OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 any adequate discharging of his old ones. Neither can 
 there be performed any thing supererogatory, or beyond 
 what is at all times incumbent on him to do ; for it is our 
 unremitting duty always to execute all the good possibly 
 in our power. Lastly, neither can this primordial guilt, 
 antecedent to any good ever done by man (styled in the 
 former book the radical evil of Human Nature), be 
 taken away by any other person, so far as all our notices 
 of the law of nature and reason reach ; for the obligation 
 thence arising is not transferable like a money debt 
 (where it is indiiFerent to the creditor whether his debtor 
 or some one else discharge the bond), so as to admit of 
 being devolved upon a cautioner ; but is, on the contrary, 
 the most exclusively personal that can be conceived, viz. 
 a debt of sins, and tye to punishment, prestable by the 
 guilty alone, not the guiltless, even though this Innocent 
 were magnanimously willing to offer himself as a substi- 
 tute. Again, since moral evil (called sin, when regarded 
 as a transgression of the Moral Law qua Divine Com- 
 mandment) brings along with it an infinitude of viola- 
 tions of THE LAW, consequently an infinity of guilt, not so 
 much on account of the infinity of the Supreme Lawgiver 
 — (of which transcendent relation obtaining betwixt man 
 and THE Most High we can comprehend nothing) — in- 
 fraction of whose authority is thereby made, as rather on 
 account of the radically evil sentiment and general turn 
 of the maxims (like universal principles when con- 
 ti-asted with singular transgressions), it would seem to 
 follow, that all mankind could only look forward to an 
 illimitable punishment, and everlasting extrusion from the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 The solution of this difficulty depends upon these fol- 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 89 
 
 lowing remarks. The final sentence of a Searcher of the 
 Heart must be regarded as bottomed on the general sen- 
 timent of the accused, not on its phenomenal appearances 
 — acts at variance or in harmony with the law. In the 
 case considered, however, we assume a dominant good 
 sentiment, which has gained and retains the mastery over 
 the once mighty principle of evil ; and thus the question 
 arises, " Can the ethical sequents of his former 
 ESTATE (viz. punishment qua effect of the divine displea- 
 sure) be drawn OVER AND MADE TO TELL UPON THE 
 BETTERED CONDITION OF HIS PRESENT MAN" where he 
 
 must be regarded as henceforward an object of the divine 
 complacency. As we do not here inquire, " whether, 
 BEFORE his change of sentiment, the execution of impending 
 punishment would consist with God's rectitude ?" — (a point 
 about which no man can doubt), we shall take it for 
 granted, in the present investigation, that the punish- 
 ment due to his misdeeds has not been inflicted prior to 
 repentance. The pains of law cannot, however, be re- 
 garded as inflicted after repentance, when the person 
 leads, agreeably to the supposition, a new life, and has 
 become morally another man ; nevertheless, satisfaction 
 must be given to Supreme Justice, in whose sight no 
 blame-worthy is ever guiltless. Again, since the execu- 
 tion of punishment is, consistently with the Divine Wis- 
 dom, to take place neither before nor yet after a change 
 of heart, and is notwithstanding necessary, it results that 
 we must regard it as suited to Supreme Wisdom to inflict 
 it in the very act of redintegrating one's character. Let 
 us then see if, in such ethic transformation, there are not 
 already, even by the very notion of it, involved those evils 
 which mankind miy regard, as due to his previous mis- 
 
90 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 deeds, and as penalties! satisfying Divine Justice. A 
 change of heart is an exit out of evil, and entrance in- 
 to good ; a stripping off the old and putting on the new | 
 man, so far forth as the individual dies unto sin (and 
 to all appetites misleading into it), and becomes alive 
 unto righteousness. But in this cogitable transit there 
 are not two moral events separated by any distance 
 of time. The whole is but one single act, the depar- 
 ture from evil being effected singly by that good sen- 
 timent which wafts us into good, and vice versa. The 
 good ideal is consequently included in the abandonment 
 of evil, just as much as in the outset of our pursuit of 
 virtue; and the pain justly annexed to the mortifying of 
 sin, arises exclusively from the clarifying impulses of tlie 
 latter. Betaking ourselves to the upward road of duty, 
 and dereliction of the ancient haunts of vice, is conse- 
 quently {as a death of the old many arid crucifying of the 
 
 •f The hypothesis, that all evils in the world are to be looked upon as 
 punishments for past sins, does not seem to have been invented for the 
 behoof of a Theodicy, neither does it seem a sprig of priestcraft ; for the 
 belief is too universally spread to be derived from any artificial origin. 
 Probably it lies just at the door of our understanding, which is apt to 
 connect the course of nature with the Laws of ^Morality ; and thence de- 
 rives the cogitation, that we must first become better men before we can 
 expect to get rid of the ills of life, or have them counterbalanced by 
 greater goods. Hence tlie first man is represented (in the Bible) as con- 
 demned, upon account of his transgi-ession, to work for his bread, and the 
 first woman to bring forth children with pain, while both are yet farther 
 sentenced ultimately to death ; although it is perfectly inconceivable 
 that any other destiny should have awaited animal creatures, constituted 
 with sucii limbs and organs as we have. The FIixdus suppose that 
 mankind are spirits (called Dc-u/as), incarcerated in an animal framework 
 in consequence of some anterior crime; and even ISIalleuiianchl' was 
 driven to deny that tlie irrational part of the creation had souls or feel- 
 ings, rather tiian admit that horses should smart under such complicated 
 cruelty, " without having ever lasted of forbidden hay." 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRIKCIPLE. 91 
 
 Jiesh) in itself a sacrifice, and entrance on a long train of 
 sufferings in life, which the new man, now like-minded 
 with the Son of God, undertakes merely for the sake of 
 the ethic good ; which suffering and sorrow, however, be- 
 longed as PUNISHMENT properly to the old man (now be- 
 come morally another). Although, then, the reformed is 
 physically the self-same guilty person as before, and must 
 as such, be equally condemned as obnoxious to punish" 
 raent, whether before an ethical tribunal, or his own con- 
 science, still his cogitable inward man is, when regard is 
 had to its transformed character, in the eye of a divine 
 judge, with whom the formal of the sentiment comes in 
 room of a defective deed, to be looked upon as morally 
 another ; and does in its purity, as a transcript of the ex- 
 amplar of the Son of God, adopted by him into his senti- 
 ments, bear, — or by personifying the idea, — this Son of 
 God, does himself, as vicarious substitute, bear for 
 the guilty, and, in like manner, for all who practically 
 believe in him, the penalty of sin ; — does, moreover, as 
 Redeemer, satisfy, by his suflferings and death, Supreme 
 Justice; and does, lastly, as Advocate for the blame- 
 worthy, lead them to hope that thsy may be ultimate- 
 ly absolved and acquitted by their Judge. With this 
 only difference, that in this figurative representation, the 
 suffering continually undergonef by the new man while 
 
 -|- Even the purest moral sentiment can beget only such actions as 
 consist in a continual transit, on our part, from bad to better. Never- 
 theless, when regardis had to their supersensible original, this sentiment 
 may and ought to be holy and conformable to the archetypal pattern, 
 and may, as one whole intellectual unit containing the gi'ound of an end- 
 less progression, compensate the defects extant at any point of the se- 
 ries, and come in the room of a completed deed. The question, how- 
 ever, here occurs, can he " to whom there is (or should be) now no condem- 
 
92 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 dying to the old, is stated as a death once for all endured 
 by tlie representative of mankind. Here is something 
 superadded to the desert of good works, not to he met 
 with while considering the two former difficulties, and 
 which is reckoned to us out of Grace. For, that we 
 should be already held to he what, while on earth (and per- 
 haps in any future world), we are no more than about to 
 become^ is an adjudication to which we can show no title 
 and the accuser within would rather move for a condem- 
 natory sentence. Such absolving sentence must there 
 fore always remain a Decree of Grace, although, as 
 based on satisfaction (extant only in the ideal of an 
 amended sentiment, and known to God alone), it is quite 
 in harmony with everlasting justice when we, for the sake 
 of our faith in that moral good, are acquitted from all 
 farther responsibility. 
 
 «a<to«," deem himself justified, and yet regard the ills of life that meet 
 him on his course toward good as punitive ? i. e. is he to acknowledge 
 a blameworthiness of sentiment, and consequently a state of mind dis- 
 pleasing to God ? Yes, but only in his capacity of the man whom he is 
 unremittingly stripping off. What was due to his old man as punishment 
 he joyously stands out and goes through for the sake of that good where- 
 with his new man is invested ; consequently, looking at them under this 
 light, he reckons them not as penal ; i. c. all those evils and calamities 
 which, befalling the old man, would have been punishments, and still are, 
 so far forth as the old man is not yet altogether put off, his new man 
 willingly accepts, as so many opportunities of testing, exalting, and car- 
 rying farther and higher, his moral weal. Whereas the self-same evils 
 would, in his old condition, not merely have been recompcntcd to him as 
 penalties, but would also have been felt as such, seeing that as physical 
 evils they are diametrically opposed to that greatest-happiness-aniount, 
 which, of the imnwrallj/'mindcd, is the exclusive end and aim. 
 
 • Only SUSCEPTIBILITY ; for this is all that we, on our side, can bring 
 towards such acquittal. Farther, the Decree of a Superior adjudging to 
 us a good for which, as inferiors, we have nothing more than moral rece/i. 
 tivity, is called qhace. 
 
 o . 
 
 ■J 
 
THE GOOD AND THI? EVIL PRINCIPLE, 93 
 
 But here a question may be raised, Does this deduction 
 of the idea of a justification of the once guilty, but now 
 transmuted to sentiments acceptable in the sight of God, 
 lead to any practical result ? and, if so. What may its 
 practical bearing be ? It would rather seem, that no posi- 
 tive use of any sort, can accrue from such an investiga- 
 tion, either to religion or to morality, since, by hypothe- 
 sis, the party interested has already passed into that de- 
 siderated moral state, to develope, advance, and bring 
 which about, is already the last end and scope of all ana- 
 lysis and elaboration of ethical ideas ; for as to any con- 
 solation to be thence drawn, amended moral sentiments 
 do of themselves straightway beget and bring this moral 
 welfare forth (as comfort and hope, though not as certain- 
 ty). The previous inquiry is therefore no more than the 
 solution of a speculative problem ; not to be silently over- 
 looked by reason, because then reason might be upbraid- 
 ed with her inability to reconcile her hopes of final abso- 
 lution from guilt, with the decrees of Divine Justice ; — a 
 reproach most hurtful to our rational faculty in many 
 respects, but especially in what regards morality. But 
 whatever may be thought of the positive value of the 
 above deduction, its negative use is of avail to the reli- 
 gion and morals of every man ; for now it is most clearly 
 obvious, that, singly, where a total change of heart has 
 taken place, can the guilty cogitate himself as absolved 
 at the bar of Heaven ; wherefore no expiations, be they 
 pompous or mournful, no invocations, nor hosannahs (not 
 even of the vicarious Ideal of the Son of God) can sup- 
 ply its want ; neither, if such free and incumbent change 
 of heart be there, can those add to its validity before the 
 celestial tribunal, inasmuch as this Ideal must have been 
 
94 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 adopted, and have passed into our own sentiments, before 
 we can look upon it as coming in the room of our defi- 
 cient deed. 
 
 Different from those interrogatories is the query, what 
 mankind may, at the end of life, have to hope or fear, as 
 consequences of the actions he may have done. To reply 
 to this question, it is first of all requisite that he know 
 his character, at least so far as to be able to strike some 
 tolerable estimate of its worth. Hence, even should he 
 suppose that a reformation of character has taken place, 
 he must notwithstanding, in his estimate, compute like- 
 wise the actions of the old man whom he has stripped off, 
 viz. what and how much of the corrupt man he has laid 
 aside, and what purity and degree of strength his sup- 
 posed new character has attained, so as effectually to 
 counterbalance the depraved bias, and secure him against 
 a return into evil. The estimate must consequently exa- 
 mine in detail his whole life. Again, since he can arrive 
 at no certain or well-defined notion as to the real state of 
 his inward sentiments, but is left to infer this from his 
 course of life, he must hold that the only means of satis- 
 factorily convincing his future Judge (his own awakened 
 conscience rising to sit in judgment on his then recalled 
 actions), will be to place before his mental vision, some 
 time or other, a panorama of his whole transacted 
 LIFE — not a mere segment of it — perhaps the last and 
 most favourable for the accused ; for with this latter part 
 he would naturally connect the hope of a still further pro- 
 gression, had his existence lasted longer. When an entire 
 track of behaviour is thus objected to his view, he cannot 
 propose to place his intentions in room of his actions, but 
 must, from the aggregate oi his actions, conclude upon his 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL IMUNCII'LE, 95 
 
 intentiofis. What thinks my reader? Does not the 
 bare thought that he may one day stand before such a 
 Judge, calling back to memory many things that had long 
 slumbered neglected in its depositories, suggest to him 
 sundry misgivings as to the destiny he may expect as the 
 sequent of his hitherto led life. When we interrogate the 
 monitor who dwells within, an inexorably rigid sentence 
 is always uttered ; for no one can bribe his own reason. 
 But if bi'ought before some other judge, such as some 
 pretend to say they know from other sources will be the 
 case, then has he many excuses, taken from the alleged 
 frailty of his nature, to urge against a rigid and severe 
 administration of the law. Either he thinks, by rueful 
 self-compunction (that never springs from a genuine spi- 
 rit of amendment), to bias his Judge, so as to mitigate his 
 punishment ; or else he hopes, by prayers and supplica- 
 tions, or by formulas and confessions, which he gives out 
 he believes, to soften and melt down his purpose ; and if 
 such belief is taught and instilled into mankind betimes 
 (conformably to the adage, " All's well that efids well"), 
 then does he from the very beginning so take his mea- 
 sures, as not needlessly to abridge his indulgence in vo- 
 luptuous excess, but waits till near life's termination, in 
 order then, in all haste, to close his ledger with a clear 
 balance anyhow in his favour.* 
 
 * The object of those who on death-bed send for a clergyman usually 
 is, to have a Comforter, not for the physical distress which the last illness 
 or even the natural fear of death produces (for here death who ends them 
 may act as Comforter), but for their moral anguish, viz. the stings of 
 conscience. These, however, ought to be rather stirred up and sharp, 
 ened, so as to goad the person on to do what good he still may — to repair 
 and counteract as far as in him lies the evil springing from his bad actions. 
 It is thus we are warned, " Agree quickly with thine adversary Qiim who 
 
96 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 APOTOME II. 
 
 OF THE TITLE OF THE EVIL PRINCIPLE TO RULE OVER MAN- 
 KIND, AND OF THE BATTLE OF THE GOOD WITH THE EVIL 
 PRINCIPLE FOR THE SOVEREIGN EMPIRE OVER THE HU- 
 MAN RACE. 
 
 The Sacred Volume exhibits this intelligible moral re- 
 lationship under the Form of a History. It represents 
 the two Principles in man as Persons without him, op- 
 posed to one another, and diverse as is Heaven from Hell, 
 who not only prove their strength against each other, 
 but do, moreover — the one as accuser, the other as advo- 
 cate — endeavour to make their claims legally valid, as if 
 before a Supreme Judge. 
 
 Mankind was originally {Genesis, i. 28) invested with the 
 thanage and dominion of all the goods of the earth. Of 
 these, however, he only possessed the fee, and was bound 
 to do homage to his liege Lord and Creator, who retained 
 the overlordship and dominium directum of the property. 
 Straightway there appears an evil being (how he became 
 so evil, and broke faith with his Lord, is unknown), who 
 by a lapse forfeited all his estates in heaven, and is now 
 on earth in quest of others in their room. But because 
 
 hat a legal claim against thee) whilst thou art on the way with him (i. e. so 
 long a* thou art alive), lest he deliver thee to the judge" {after death), and 
 so forth. On the other hand, to administer opiates to conscience is a 
 violation of what is due equally to the moribund and his surviving fel- 
 low-men, and quite subversive of the true end why such a curator of con- 
 science can at all be looked upon as advantageous in one's last moments. 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 97 
 
 this evil person is a spirit of the very highest order, cor- 
 poreal and terrestrial objects can afford him no delight. 
 He seeks a dominion over the minds and wills, by making 
 the progenitors of our race swerve from their Lord and 
 become subservient to him ; by all which he succeeds in 
 being acknowledged as the Superior of the goods of the 
 earth, i. e. as the Prince of this World. Here a doubt 
 might easily suggest itself, why the Omnipotent should 
 not instantly have crushed this traitor by his might, and 
 overthrown in the beginning the first rudiments of that 
 kingdomf he intended to found. But Supreme Wisdom 
 deals with Intelligents agreeably to a Principle of Free 
 Will, and does, in the administration of his empire, allow 
 their good or evil to emanate from and be imputable to 
 themselves. Thus, however, in contempt of the Good Prin- 
 ciple, a kingdom of evil was erected, to which all mankind 
 naturally descending from Adam have enthralled them- 
 selves, and that, too, with their own consent, the glitter- 
 ing baubles of this world's goods sealing their eyes, lest 
 they should see into the abyss of ruin for which they are 
 reserved. This Good Principle did meanwhile defend it- 
 self against the alleged title of the Evil Principle to rule 
 over mankind, by establishing a particular form of govern- 
 ment, THE Jewish Theocracy, which was set apart for 
 the public and sole veneration of his name. But since 
 the minds of the subjects in this government were mainly 
 
 f Father Charlevoix relates that, when teachhig a wild Iroquese his 
 catechism, and explaining to his pupil all the ruin and evil entailed by 
 the wicked spirit on this originally good world, and the mischiefs still 
 wrought by him frustrative of the best divine institutions, the indignant 
 savage interrupted his instructor with Why does not God annihilate tlie 
 Devil ? A home-thrust, which the missionary candidly admits he was un- 
 able at the time to parry. 
 
 G 
 
98 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 swayed by temporal rewards and punishments ; and since 
 the ceremonial law, though containing some few ethical 
 precepts, was essentially civil and forensic ; it is plain 
 that such an economy as was the Judaical church and 
 state could not encroach much on the realms of darkness, 
 but served only to prevent the imprescriptible rights 
 of the FIRST OWNER fiom falling into abeyance. 
 
 In course of time the Jews began to feel all the miseries 
 of their Hierarchical Polity, partly perhaps from a sense 
 of the native evils springing from such a course of things, 
 or perhaps they were taught so to regard them by the 
 Greek pliilosophical speculations concerning |K)litical and 
 mental liberty. The soul-thrilling doctrines taught bv 
 those immortal sages had flashed out like thunderbolts 
 into all adjoining countries, disturbing ancient heads 
 of Superstition and Tyranny, — awaking the people to a 
 sense of their rights, and rousing them even to the brink 
 of revolution. At such a time as this it was, when the 
 Jewish people were ripe for a rebellion, that all at once 
 there appeared a Person whose wisdom was so much 
 purer than that of any previous philosopher, that it seemed 
 as if it had come down from heaven ! This Person an- 
 nounced himself, both with respect to doctrine and ex- 
 ample, as a true man, but yet at the same time as a Di- 
 vine Ambassador, of such extraction, as, by his originary 
 innocence, not to be included in the covenant which all the 
 rest of mankind had entered into, by their ancestor and 
 representative, with the Evil Principle ; and " in whom, 
 consequently, the Prince of this IVorU had nothing" The go- 
 vernment of the prince was now endangered; for should 
 this man, morally-acceptable to God, withstand all solici- 
 tations to join the evil league, and if, in consequence, other 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 99 
 
 men were to adopt a similar cast of thinking, then would 
 he lose all those his subjects, and his kingdom run the 
 risk of being one day utterly subverted. To guard against 
 such an occurrence, the prince offered the ambassador 
 the joint-government with himself, of his whole empire, 
 provided he were by homage acknowledged as the right- 
 ful sovereign. But as this experiment did not succeed, 
 he forthwith withdrew from this stranger, while on earth, 
 all that could make life agreeable, plunging him in the 
 deepest poverty, exciting against him the bitterest perse- 
 cution, calumniating the purity of his intentions and doc- 
 trines, — griefs that the moral mind alone can right inly 
 feel, — pursuing him finally even to the most degrading 
 death, without being able, by this violent invasion, to 
 shake him in the least from his constancy and generosity, 
 in advancing the weal of the unworthy by example and 
 precept. And now let us consider the close and issue of 
 this combat. The result may be regarded either under 
 a PHYSICAL or LEGAL aspect. As physical, falling under 
 sense, the Good Principle is worsted. After much endured 
 distress, his life perished* in the conflict, because he 
 
 • Not, as Dr Bahrdt will have it, that he volunteered to die, that 
 he might, by a shining and startling fate, call attention to his good doc- 
 trines and designs : such a step would have been self-murder. Mankind 
 may doubtless hazard something, even when the stake perilled is loss of 
 life. We may undergo execution from others, when we cannot escape 
 without betraying a sacred duty ; but no one is entitled to dispose of 
 himself or his life as a mere mean toward any end, be that end what it 
 may ; for then he would be author of his own death. Neither can I 
 coincide with the remark thrown out in the Wolfenbuttel Frag- 
 MENTs, that his life was staked, not on a moral, but on a political and dis- 
 allowed end, viz. the subverting of the sacerdotal power, and substituting 
 himself as Worldly Head in their room. This latter suspicion is obviat- 
 ed by reflecting that he must already have renounced all hope of life 
 when he exhorted his Disciples at their Last Supper to repeat that cere- 
 
100 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 sowed sedition in a realm, foreign to liis and endowcfi 
 with force and authority. But since the realm wheroiu 
 the will's principles, — be they good or evil,— are do- 
 minant, is a realm, not of Nature, but of Freedom, i. e. a 
 kingdom where things can be disposed of, only so far as 
 we are able to maintain sway over the minds, and where 
 no one can be enslaved, except liim who chooses to be en- 
 thralled, and even then only as long as he so wills ; it 
 follows that this death, — the last extremity of human 
 SUFFERING, — was an exhibition of mankind's indwelling 
 good principle in its entire moral perfection, as an ex- 
 ample displayed for the benefit of every one. It was then, 
 is now, and may be at all times of the greatest possible 
 influence, by setting forth in the most glaring contrast 
 the Freedom of the Children of Heaven, and the Bondage 
 of a mere Son of Earth. But this good principle is iiol 
 to be regarded as having been manifested at one given 
 particular time only; but must be held, even from the 
 very first origin of our species, to have invisibly come 
 down from heaven, and taken up its abode with man ; as 
 any one may immediately convince himself who attends 
 to the final destination of his being — holiness, — and then 
 
 mony in remembrance of liini. Had this been a memento of failing 
 and defeated worldly designs, it could only have awakened a mortify iiiL! 
 and indignant recollection of their framer, and so the exhortation to re- 
 member him would have destroyed itself. Nevertheless, such a memen- 
 to of the Great Teacher and Master is not inconsistent with his con- 
 sciousness of having missed of a good and pure moral end, viz. the intent 
 of bringing about a runi-ic revolution in religion — by abolishing a cere- 
 monial faitli that extruded all morality in sentiment, and by overthrow- 
 ing the authority of its priests — a design that, I regret to think, has not 
 yet gone into execution. It has not, however, been altogether frustrat- 
 ed, but passed, after his death, though slowly and sorrowlully, into a 
 widely self-extending modification of religion. 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 101 
 
 reflects on the incomprehensible union betwixt such an 
 ethical predisposition and the sensitive nature of man. 
 Appearing, however, in a true and real given person, it 
 may be said of the ideal, that " he then came unto his oivn, 
 Und his own received him 7iot, although to as many as re- 
 ceived him, to them gave he power to become sons of God, 
 even to them that believe on his name ;" i. e. he by his ex- 
 ample threw open the portals of freedom to all who, like 
 him, chose to die to whatever kept them fettered to this 
 earthly life disadvantageously to their morality, and ga- 
 thers from among mankind, under his authority, a pecu- 
 liar people, zealous of good works, leaving, the meanwhile, 
 those who prefer the servitude of immorality, to their 
 moral chains. 
 
 Consequently, the final close of this moral combat, up 
 to the period of the death of tlie hero of this history, does 
 not issue in the conquest of the Evil Principle ; for his 
 kingdom still endures, and an ulterior epoch is yet expect- 
 ed when it shall be finally subverted. The result of the 
 combat has only been to abridge his power of detaining 
 those whom he enthrals longer than they chose to be his 
 slaves, — a different moral government (and under one or 
 other mankind must at all times stand) now awaiting 
 them as an asylum, where refuge and protection can be 
 found for their morality when they come forth from the 
 ancient haunts of bondage. The Evil Principle bears as 
 yet the name of Prince of this World, — a world where the 
 followers of the Good Principle must always be prepared 
 to undergo physical disasters, sacrifices, and mortifications 
 of self-love, — things that are understood to be persecutions 
 on the part of the Evil Principle, because in his kingdom 
 there are rewards for those only, who make physical well- 
 being the scope and aim of their exertions. 
 
102 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 Every body must at once perceive, that when this 
 lively and singularly popular narrative is divested of its 
 mystic veil, its spirit and meaning are practically valid 
 and obligatory, at all times, and for the whole world, in 
 as much as they lay before every man a vivid outline of 
 his duty. The moral suggested by the narrative is, that 
 there is absolutely no salvation for mankind apart from 
 their adopting into their inmost sentiments genuine mo- 
 ral principles ; that such adoption is withstood, not by 
 the so often blamed sensory, but by a certain self-de- 
 merited perversity (satanic guile, or by whatever other 
 name we may term that vitiosity whereby sin entered 
 into the world), to be met with in every man, and ca- 
 pable of being removed by nothing, save by the idea of 
 the moral good in its entire purity, attended, however, 
 with the inward conviction that this ideal really belongs 
 to the originary predispositions of our personality ; and 
 that all we need do, after having deeply engraven it on our 
 soul, is to keep it clear from foreign admixture, in order 
 that we may, by the effect it gradually takes upon the 
 mind, become perfectly assured that the dreaded powers of 
 evil never can deface it, and that the gates of hell shall not 
 ultimately prevail against us. Again, lest we beat about 
 for some substitute to supply the want of this assurance, — 
 either, first, superstitiously, by expiations, that presup- 
 pose no change of heart, or, second, fanatically, by ima- 
 gined passive inward illuminations, both which withdraw 
 mankind to a distance, from good groimded on his own 
 self-activity — the history reminds us that no criterion of 
 this assurance can be morally allowed, other than the 
 criterion of a well-regulated exemplary life. 
 
 Finally, an endeavour, such as the present, to find in 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 103 
 
 the Scripture that sense* which best harmonizes with the 
 tenets, taught by Reason, and looked upon as in her eye 
 amongst the Holiest of Holies, is not only allowed, but 
 must be deemed a duty ; and mankind may remind them- 
 selves of what the Wise Teacher once said to his disci- 
 ples, touching some one who struck into a path of his own> 
 but which eventually led to the same goal, " Forbid him 
 not; for he that is not against us, is for us." 
 
 GENERAL SCHOLION. 
 
 Whenever a moral religion (consisting, as it does, not 
 in rites, observances, or traditions, but in the cordial in- 
 tent of fulfilling all our duties, as if divinely command- 
 ed) is to be established, then must even the miracles that 
 may be historically connected with its introduction be- 
 come ultimately superfluous. Moral religion tends event- 
 ually to displace and dispense with all miraculous beliefs 
 whatever ; for mankind betrays a culpable state of moral 
 unbelief, when he refuses to acknowledge the paramount 
 authority of those behests of duty primordially insculpted 
 on his heart, unless he see them accredited and enforced 
 by miracles — " Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will 
 not believe." It is, however, quite consistent with the 
 common opinions of mankind to hold, that when a reli- 
 gion of mere rites and ceremonies is to be abolished, and 
 one in the spirit and truth of a moral sentiment is to be 
 introduced in its stead, the historical introduction of this 
 last may be accompanied and adorned with miracles, in 
 
 * Which sense, it is at once conceded, is not the only one. 
 
104 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 Older to proclaim tlie expiry of the former, whicli, apart 
 from miracles, never would have had any authority. 
 Again, in order to win over the adherents of the old sys- 
 tem to the new order of affairs, it is quite conceivable 
 that the spiritual worship might be represented as the 
 fulfilling antitype, fore-ordained of old, of those ceremo- 
 nies, and which was, even under the old economy, the 
 last end and design of Pro^^dence. Since these matters 
 can be thus accommodated to the notices of reason, it can 
 serve no purpose whatever now to call in question the 
 accuracy of those narrations, or of such allegorical inter- 
 pretation, provided only we have fairly attained a true 
 religion, which can subsist henceforward by itself, and 
 on its own evidence in reason, although once upon a time 
 it may have required such adminicles to aid it ; and pro- 
 vided always that people will not insist, that the bare be- 
 lieving and rehearsal of matters incomprehensible (which 
 any one may believe and repeat without being or ever 
 becoming thereby a better man) is to be deemed a mode, 
 or perhaps the only mode, of acceptably worshipping God ; 
 this being an opinion that is most strenuously to be im- 
 pugned. It may, therefore, perhaps be all very true that 
 the Person of the Teacher of the alone true and univer- 
 sally valid religion is an impenetrable mystery; that his 
 advent and departure from earth were miraculous ; that 
 his eventful life and death were likewise miracles ; nay, 
 that the very history docuraentarily attesting the nar- 
 rative of all those wonders, is again itself a miracle 
 {i. e. SUPERNATURAL REVELATION) ; nay, we may concede 
 to such alleged facts whatever worth they claim, and even 
 venerate the vehicle that has brought into public currency, 
 a doctrine, that needs neither sign nor wonder for its ere- 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE, 105 
 
 dential, being insculpted indefaceably on every human 
 soul. All this, it is conceded, may be done, so long as those 
 historic documents are not perverted into elements of re- 
 ligion, and mankind taught that the knowing, believing, 
 and professing their contents, is in itself something where- 
 by we can render oui'selves acceptable to God. 
 
 Concerning miracles generally, I am inclined to think, 
 that although sensible people refuse absolutely to deny 
 them, they do nevertheless object to cultivating any prac- 
 tical belief in the marvellous; that is to say, they willingly 
 admit in theory that miracles are possible, but in the 
 BUSINESS OF LIFE they count upon none. Enlightened 
 governments have upon this ground at once conceded, or 
 even decided and enacted, when legislating in ecclesiastical 
 matters, that miracles happened in days of yore; but that 
 now-a-days no new miracle can be permitted.f Prodi- 
 
 f Orthodox religious teachers who attach themselves to the articles 
 of a church-creed established by law and supported by government, ob- 
 serve this maxim in the case of all supposed new miracles. They thus 
 left room for Mr Pfenninger to defend his friend Mr Lavater, who 
 had declared his belief that miracles were still possible. Mr P. re- 
 proached the orthodox with their inconsistency, in giving out that some 
 seventeen centuries ago there were actual workers of miracles in the 
 Christian congregations, and yet refusing to admit that miraculous gifts 
 existed in the church now. He remarked to them, that thej'^ had suc- 
 ceeded in proving from the Scripture, neither that miracles were to- 
 tally to cease, nor ■when their termination was to be expected. This 
 proof still remains a desideratum ; for the quibble, that miraculous in- 
 terposition is now no longer necessary, is an assumption of higher know- 
 ledge than befits any man. Their conduct in this particular indicates 
 what the dictate of reason is, namely, not practically to admit that such 
 things happen now, although the objective insight that miracles are im- 
 possible is unattainable. But if this be the only rational dictate to be 
 followed, lest the commonwealth be thrown into continued perturbation, 
 ought not a similar maxim to obtain for the protection of philosophy, 
 and indeed of every rational and reflecting society. They who deny 
 
106 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 gies, indeed, were of old so fixed, and gradually circum- 
 scribed, by the magistrate, that no confusion could ever 
 accrue through such anomalous means to the common- 
 wealth ; whereas if any one were of new to display signs 
 and wonders, the government would naturally be appre- 
 hensive whereunto such things might grow, and anxious as 
 to the effect that such preternatural manifestations might | 
 exert on public tranquillity and the existing constitution. I 
 Were the question raised, " What is a miracle ?" then — 1 
 since all we are concerned about knowing is, what miracles ? 
 are in reference to us, i. e. when regard is had to the prac- ? 
 tical use of our own understanding — the following answer 
 might be given, viz. they are events brought about by 
 causes, with the laws of whose eflBciency we are and must 
 ever remain totally unacquainted. These miraculous por- 
 tents may be cogitated as flowing either from God or 
 from Demons, which latter class again branches out into 
 signs angelical and signs diabolical, according as the marvels 
 are understood to emanate from a good or an evil spirit 
 (agathodemonian or kakodemonian miracles). The dia- 
 bolical alone fall under examination ; since the good an- 
 gels (I scarcely know why) are seldom or never heard of 
 acting in this capacity. 
 
 GRAND miracles, but admit the small, under the name of estraordinary 
 Providences (because, as merely directing or influencing the course of 
 events, little expenditure of supernatural agency is required), talk be- 
 side the purpose ; the question does not regard the volume or intensity 
 of the effect, but touches the Form of the Flux of Nature in time, i. e. 
 depends upon the mode how the form of the course of events is regu- 
 lated, viz. whether naturally or supernaturally. As for the mystebi- 
 ousNEss of supernatural operations, to fancy any studied concealment 
 {on the pari of l/w Dclly? Tn.) is quite inconsistent with the importance 
 of a matter of this kind. Farther, in the case of God, no distinction be- 
 twixt what is difficult and easy is cogitable. 
 
THE GOOD AKD THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. lOT 
 
 Theistical Miracles can by all means be figured as 
 cogitable ; nay, we can even frame to ourselves a negative 
 and merely general notion of the law of the agency of the 
 Divine Causality, as the causal-agency of an Almighty and 
 Moral Being, at once Creator and Governor of the intellec- 
 tual and material worlds ; for of the laws of his ethical ad- 
 ministration we are intimately aware, and possess a stand- 
 ing perception, that is quite available to reason. On the 
 hypothesis that, in some particular cases, it should seem 
 fit to the Divine Wisdom to control and modify the course 
 of the physical system in that sensible effect called a mi- 
 racle, then we have not the smallest notion, neither can 
 we ever hope to attain any, of the law agreeably to which 
 God conducts the operation of such sign ; we have no 
 more than a general moral notion, that whatever God 
 does, will be all very good — a representation that defines 
 nothing with respect to any singular event. Here the un- 
 derstanding is brought at once to a stand, and shackled in 
 its ordinary avocation of referring phenomena to their 
 known antecedents, and sees no prospect of ever gaining 
 any insight that might compensate for this disturbance. 
 Among the various kinds of possible miracles, the demo- 
 nian are the most irreconcileable with the exercise of rea- 
 son. For, touching the theistical, reason is always in pos- 
 session of a negative criterion, whereby to test their divine 
 original ; inasmuch as, if any thing were held to be com- 
 manded by God himself immediately appearing, which 
 commandment were, however, directly subversive of mo- 
 rality, then how imposing and majestic soever might be 
 the miraculous appearance of the divine semblance, it 
 is absolutely certain that this supposed preternatural 
 but immoial behest, never could have proceeded from 
 
108 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 the Supreme (e. g. if a father were desired to slay his 
 perfectly innocent son). But in the case of any fan- 
 cied deraonian miracle, even this negative criterion is 
 wanting; and were we to attempt to introduce the con- 
 trary and positive rule, viz. that when the sign invites t<> 
 a good action, already incumbent on us, as our duty, it 
 cannot possibly have come from an evil being, then may 
 we just as easily go wrong; for this last, as we are told, 
 does sometimes transform himself into an angel of light. 
 
 In the business and practical conduct of life, miracles 
 are not to be counted on ; neither can they tell in any 
 way upon the suggestions of our understanding, with 
 whose directions, from day to day, we never can dispense. 
 Judges (although, as members of the church, most ortho- 
 dox believers in miracles) listen to the excuses of a culprit 
 who urges in alleviation of his crime a temptation from 
 the devil, with ears as deaf as if nothing had been said, 
 although, if they really considered such preternatural se- 
 duction possible, it would not be undeserving of atten- 
 tion, that a simple common man had fallen into the snares 
 of a most astute and abandoned villain. But then this 
 outlaw cannot be cited to their bar ; the prisoner and his 
 spiritual accomplice cannot be confronted ; in a single 
 word, no judge can make any rational application of any 
 such alleged defence. Sensible divines will therefore take 
 good heed how they cram and bewilder the heads of their 
 flock with infernal stories about this occult Proteus. 
 Again, as for benignant miracles, when men of business 
 talk of them, that is no more than a mode of speaking. 
 Thus a physician says, without a miracle the patient is 
 gone, — he must certainly die ; where by a miracle is mere- 
 ly understood an unusual occurrence. To the real busi- 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL FRINCTPLE. 109 
 
 ness of life belongs the occupation of the natural philoso- 
 pher, in endeavouring to detect the causes and laws of 
 cosmical phenomena : such physical laws of those events, 
 I say, as he can authenticate and prove by observation 
 and experience, although he renounces every pretence to 
 know, what that which works agreeably to those laws, may 
 be in itself, or what it might be, were we gifted with an 
 added sense. In exactly the same way, each man's moral 
 amendment, is part of the solemn business of life ; and 
 whether celestial influences work along with us, or be 
 even deemed needful, toward an explanation of the possi- 
 bility of so desirable an event, still mankind cannot com- 
 prehend them, neither can he certainly distinguish the 
 extraordinary aid, from his own natural operations, nor 
 yet superinduce them upon himself, and so as it were 
 draw down the heavens and put them within his grasp. 
 In as much, then, as no practical benefit can accrue from 
 such tenets, he sets to work as if there were no moral 
 miracles,* and, in obeying the decrees of reason, proceeds 
 exactly as if the whole change and amendment of his in- 
 ner man depended singly on his own strenuous and dili- 
 gent exertions. Lastly, the imagination, that any one 
 can by dint of a firm theoretical faith in miraculous 
 events, himself possess the practical gift of performing 
 them, and take as it were the kingdom of heaven by vio- 
 lence, is so very unexpected an evagation from all bounds 
 of common sense, as to render it needless for us to tarry 
 even for a moment on so preposterous a whimsey. 
 
 • That is to say, mankind refuses to admit a miraculous belief into the 
 maxims either of his speculative or practical understanding, without, 
 however, calling in question either the possiWUy or actualitij of such mar- 
 vellous demonstrations. 
 
110 OF THE COMBAT BETWIXT 
 
 Jugglers, who pretend to magic gifts, have recourse not un- 
 frequently to a subterfuge, in order to impose upon the credu- 
 lous, viz. they appeal to the confessed ignorance of natural 
 philosophers. We cannot fathom — they cry — the last ground of 
 the atti-action of gravitation, nor yet of magnetism ; hence, by 
 parity of reason, &c. &c. But the laws of gravitation and mag- 
 netism we know in most extensive detail, and are even perfect- 
 ly acquainted with the limits and conditions under which alone 
 certain given effects take place ; and this is enough both for a 
 sure and rational application of those phenomena, and also for a 
 satisfactory explication of them, secundum quid, i. e. down- 
 wards, when using those laws, so as to subsume and arrange the 
 magnetic or other phenomena under them ; although certainly 
 not enough for an explication simpliciter, i. e. regressively up- 
 wards, when we wish to comprehend the last substratal ground 
 of the forces, that we know operate according to those ob- 
 served laws. This remark likewise serves to throw light on a 
 remarkable peculiarity in our intellectual economy, viz. why the 
 stupendous wonders ©f Creation, i. e. sufficiently attested, though 
 startling and marvellous phenomena, or even unexpectedly 
 emerging appearances, seemingly at variance with nature's known 
 laws, are eagerly laid hold of, as promising enchanting prospects, 
 whereas the announcement of something really miraculous and 
 preternatural, tends rather to abash and deject the mind. The 
 cause is obvious : Natural Wonders unfold in vision farther and 
 exhaustless fields of intellectual research, and encourage reason 
 to entertain the hope that, by duly tracing the anomalous phe- 
 nomena, new and hitherto unknown laws may rise to light. Pre- 
 ternatural wonders, on the other hand, rather overwhelm the 
 understanding, and give birth to the apprehension that it is 
 about to be bereft of all trust and confidence even in those it be- 
 lieves already investigated and established. Now, whenever the 
 understanding is wrenched away from those laws of experience 
 
THE GOOD AND THE EVIL PRINCIPLE, 111 
 
 and observation, which by its categories it prescribes and im- 
 poses on all cosmical events whatsoever, then may it be said to 
 have breathed out its last gasp ; for in such fairy world its know- 
 ledge is useless, and all human wisdom is at once defeated of its 
 ends, seeing that in an order of affairs so loosened and dissolved, 
 even the moral exercise of practical reason, in discharging duty, 
 is subverted ; for, now, who can any longer be certain that cer- 
 tain changes may not, quite unknown to us, be miraculously 
 wrought upon our moral springs, where none can tell, whether 
 to ascribe them to himself, or to some higher impenetrable 
 cause. They who are inclined to judge favourably of miracles, 
 think they remove the stumbling-block thrown by them in the 
 way of reason, when they concede that preternatural events are 
 of seldom occurrence. Possibly they even insinuate that this 
 rarity is covertly involved in the very notion of a miracle, be- 
 cause, if any such event were ordinarily to happen, it would 
 then cease to be a wonder. Giving them the full benefit of this 
 most sophistical evasion (the sophism of confounding an objective 
 question, viz. what a tiling is ? with one merely subjective, viz. 
 what the word whereby ice indicate that thing signifies?), it must 
 still be asked, how seldom ? once in a century, or only, per- 
 haps, in the beginning of the world, but now not at all. Here, 
 nothing can be definitively fixed from what we know of the object 
 (for that, by hypothesis, transcends our comprehension) ; all we 
 can do is to assign a necessary maxim on which we must regu- 
 late the use of our understanding, and either admit that they 
 happen never, or daily, masked under the garb of natural events. 
 The latter alternative is quite incompatible with reason, and 
 hence our only course is to fall back upon the former. This po- 
 sition, however, it must well be noted, is only a self-appointed 
 maxim, regulating our reflex judgments ; it must not be mistaken 
 for a positive theoretical assertion. No man is at liberty to frame 
 so exaggerated an opinion of his depth of insight, as to pre- 
 tend decisively to say that the admirable conservation of species 
 and genera in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, where each 
 
112 OF THE COMBAT, &C. 
 
 successive generation follows the exemplar of its parent kind, — 
 copying with the greatest exactness all the internal mechanism 
 of its originary frame-work, and even (in the case of plants) adorn- 
 ing itself, every spring, with the most delicate hues that coloured 
 the complexion of the primeval stock, setting at defiance all the 
 desolating fury wherewith the autumnal or wintry blasts of in- 
 organic nature might attack the seeds : — no person, I say, can 
 pretend to know whether all this is operated by the laws and plas- 
 tic powers of the physical system, or whether the Creator's im- 
 mediate agency is not invariably required for the annual re-ex- 
 hibition of this vernal show. But the phenomena are objected to 
 our observation and experience ; consequently, in our eye, they 
 are seen as effects wrought by nature, and are by us never to 
 be otherwise judged of. The modest voice of reason calls upon 
 us to abide within these limits, and to stray beyond this circum- 
 scribed barrier, is the step of an understanding at once rash and 
 indecorous ; although I am aware, that people who appeal to pre- 
 ternatural explications, often pretend that they do thereby give 
 proof, of their humble and self-denying spirit. 
 
HARMONY AND IDENTITY 
 
 NOTICES OF REASON WITH THOSE OF 
 ANY POSSIBLE REVELATION, 
 
 SHEWN IN FOUR BOOKS, 
 
 BOOK in. 
 
 THE ENTIRE CONQUEST OF THE EVIL BY THE GOOD 
 
 PRINCIPLE IS ONLY POSSIBLE THROUGH 
 
 THE COMING AND FOUNDING OF A 
 
 KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH. 
 
BOOK III. 
 
 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD OVER THE EVIL 
 PRINCIPLE, AND THE FOUNDING OF A KING- 
 DOM OF GOD ON EARTH. 
 
 EXORDIUM. 
 
 From the enduring combat fought by every morally- 
 minded person, under the banners of the principle of good, 
 against the assaults of the principle of evil, no higher ad- 
 vantage is at any time to be expected, than that mankind 
 succeed in achieving his emancipation from the tyranny 
 of the latter. " To be made free from sin, and a servant of 
 righteousness" is the utmost to be gained from the strug- 
 gle. We remain, notwithstanding, continually exposed 
 to the hostile aggression of our foe ; and to maintain a 
 freedom perpetually threatened and endangered, it is ne- 
 cessary that we continue always armed and ready for a 
 conflict. 
 
 Into this state of danger, mankind has fallen by his 
 own fault; consequently, he is bound, as much as in him 
 lies, to strain every nerve to extricate himself from it. But 
 how is this extrication to be accomplished ? that is the 
 question. Reflecting on the various occasions and cir- 
 cumstances that entangle and detain him in this danger. 
 
JIG OF THK VICTORY OF THE COOD 
 
 the conviction arises ntiturally in his mind, tliat this hib 
 perilous condition is not owing to liis own rude isolated 
 nature, but sjmngs from the connection and relationship 
 into which he is thrown among his fellow-men : no sti- 
 innlant or instinct of his physical system does, so long as 
 he lives apart and by himself, stir those emmoved tas- 
 siONS, that spiead such desolations amid his originally 
 good predisposition. His wants are few, and so easily 
 supplied, as to leave his mind unembarrassed and tranquil, 
 in fearless confidence, that as much as man absolutely 
 needs is to be found everywhere. He is only poor (or 
 fancies himself in penury), when he begins to apprehend 
 that others may think him so, and despise him upon that 
 accoinit. Only when mixing in intercourse with his fel- 
 low-men, do envy, ambition, avarice, and their train of 
 uncomfortable perturbations, besiege and take his other- 
 wise frugal and contented mind captive. To superinduce 
 upon any one these dire effects, it is by no means neces- 
 sary that his associates be sunk in evil, or seduce him by 
 their contagious example into crime. It is enough that 
 mankind come together, in order, by their proximity and 
 intercourse, to corrupt themselves mutually, and jdunge 
 one another into evil. Unless, then, some metliod can 
 be devised for guarding against this danger, it would 
 seem that, Iiow successfully soever each individual man 
 may have for a while emancipated himself from the 
 thraldom of the enemy, he is, notwithstanding, in immi- 
 nent risk of being constantly thrown back into his ad- 
 versary's snares. The most obvious plan for counteract- 
 ing this perverted and re-acting bias to spread abroad 
 the seeds of evil, would be to form a general combina- 
 tion, instituted for tlie express end of warding off the bad. 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 1]7 
 
 and cultivating what in mankind is good. To combine 
 in sacli a union is tantamount to instituting a standing 
 society, admitting of gradual and continual extension, in- 
 tended for the general support of morality, where all the 
 members work in common toward the suppression and 
 overthrow of the wicked principle. The eventual domi- 
 nion of the Good Principle is, consequently, as far as we 
 mankind can work along with it, no otherwise to be at- 
 tained than by setting up and spreading a society, com- 
 bined under laws of virtue, whereof the end is no other 
 than the advancement of virtue as its own and last end. 
 To project and realize such an ethical institution, capable 
 of comprehending the whole human race within its bo- 
 som, is therefore propounded to us by legislative reason, 
 at once as Problem and as Duty; for thus alone can the 
 Good Principle hope to triumph over our indwelling prin- 
 ciple of evil. Out of and beyond the laws prescribed by 
 morally-legislative reason to each single individual, she 
 unfurls moreover a banner of virtue as a central-point, 
 around which all lovers of good may rally, where each 
 fights no longer alone, but in the escort of allies, all 
 equally intent on crushing the power of their restless and 
 vigilant invader, and securing victory for the Good Prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 A conjunct association of this sort, regulated on the 
 pattern of the above idea, and combined under its ideal 
 moral laws, may be called an ethical society; and 
 whenever those laws are publicly announced, it may, in 
 contradistinction to the Juridico-civil or jjol it ical, be called 
 an ethico-civil society, or, in other words, an ethical 
 COMMONWEAL. This ethic commonwealth may exist in 
 the midst of a political commonv^calth ; nay, the mem- 
 
1J8 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 bers of both may be the same (however, unless the civil 
 polity be already in existence and serve as groundwork 
 for the other, no ethical polity can ever be figured as rea- 
 lizable by man). But though the one presuppose the 
 other, the ethico-civil polity has its own peculiar and dis- 
 tinguishing principle (the principle of virtue), and con- 
 sequently a form and constitution essentially different 
 from those of the former. Nevertheless a certain analogy 
 obtains betwixt them, regarded both as commonwealths, 
 upon account of which analogy the latter may be spoken 
 
 of as AN ETHICAL STATE, ?. 6. A KINGDOM OF VIRTUE (OT of 
 
 the Good Principle) ^ — ^an idea deeply rooted in the reason 
 of man, and possessing full objective reality (viz. as im- 
 posing upon mankind a duty of combining in such a mo- 
 ral civitas maxima), although subjectively it never can be 
 hoped from the good wills of mankind that they will re- 
 solve cordially to co-operate toward the eduction of that 
 end. 
 
OVER TIIK EVIL PIIINCJPLE. 119 
 
 APOTOME I. 
 
 PHILOSOPHICAL ACCOUNT OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 PRINCIPLE, BY FOUNDING A KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 OF THE ETHICAL STATE OF NATURE. 
 
 A POLITICAL OR JURiDico-civiL STATE denotes tlie re- 
 ciprocal relation of man to man, so far as they stand un- 
 der laws common, public, and forensic (where the laws 
 carry with them an outward title of co-action). An ethi- 
 co-civiL STATE, ou the contrary, is one where mankind 
 are combined under the like laws, only tliese last have not 
 in and for themselves any coercive power of the civil kind, 
 i.e. its inherent jurisdiction exists solely under pure laws 
 of virtue^ 
 
 Again, as to the first, is opposed the juridical (or legal, 
 though not upon that account legitimate) state of nature; 
 so a distinction is to be taken betwixt the latter and l.lie 
 ethical state of nature. In either state of nature each in- 
 dividual appoints to himself liis own law, there being no 
 outward legislation extant, to which he, in conjunction with 
 others, could acknowledge himself subject. In both, is 
 each his own judge and avenger, there being as yet no 
 PUBLIC AUTHORITY empowered to act as common arbiter, 
 judicially to apply the rule of right, determine impartially 
 in any emerging crisis what each man's duty may de- 
 mand, and then enforce its general observance. 
 
120 OF THE VICTORY OF THK COOl) 
 
 Existing political commonwealths have, it is true, de- 
 parted from the crude inartificial regimen ; but still every 
 member of this civil community remains in *is ethical 
 STATE OF NATURE, and IS in truth quite entitled to persist 
 in it ; for, that any civil polity should be held bound to 
 compel its subjects to form themselves into an ethic com- 
 monweal, is a palpable contradiction — the latter society 
 being, by its very idea, distinguished from the other, just 
 by wanting and disclaiming all co-active force. Doubt- 
 less every political society must wish that there may ob- 
 tain among its members a government according to laws 
 of virtue, in order that where its own co-active mechanism 
 is invalid, — human tribunals not peneti^ating into the inte- 
 rior of man, — these virtuous sentiments may bring forth the 
 desired effect. But woe worth the day to that statesman 
 who should dream of violently establishing a society in- 
 tended simply for ethic ends ; for such rude attempt would 
 give birth to anything save a moral community, and would 
 render uncertain and unstable the foundations even of his 
 STATE. Members of a civil polity are, therefore, quite ex- 
 empt from any legislatorial compulsion, or subjection to 
 the decrees of an ethical society, and retain full and un- 
 shackled option, whether they will, with their fellow-citi- 
 zens, frame, moreover, a moral association, or continue in 
 the first and original ethical state of nature. On the other 
 hand, as soon as an ethical commonwealth, based on pub- 
 lic laws, has been arranged, and possessed of a correspond- 
 ing pul)lic constitution, those who have freely made thcm- 
 selvesits members must not suffer themselves to receiveor- 
 ders from any political authority, how to adjust or construct 
 the details of its internal framework. Although they may, 
 indeed must, alh)w certain limitations to be prescribed, 
 
'^ 
 
 OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE, 121 
 
 viz. that none of their institutions obstruct that duty al- 
 ready incumbent on each associate as a citizen of state, — 
 a precaution that, where an ethical society is founded on 
 
 I genuine moral principles, is perhaps little better than un- 
 
 j necessary apprehension. 
 
 Again, because the offices of virtue extend to the whole 
 human race, the idea of an ethical commonwealth em- 
 braces an ideal aggregate of all mankind, and does, by this 
 peculiarity, distinguish itself from all political societies. 
 Hence any assignable number of men, united for this ul- 
 timate end, cannot be regarded as the ethical state 
 ITSELF, but only as a branch of it ; each partial and 
 more limited society endeavouring to come to a complete 
 uniformity and concordance with every other, in order to 
 arrive at that absolute ethic whole, whereof each lesser 
 association is no more than a Scheme or EJj[igiatio7i, each 
 of them again standing to one another in the relationship 
 of an ethical state of nature, and consequently encumber- 
 ed with all the inconveniences that attach to this imper- 
 fect order of things, just as is found to obtain among 
 states totally unconnected by any common international 
 convention. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 MANKIND OUGHT TO QUIT HIS ETHICAL STATE OF NATURE IN 
 ORDER TO BECOME A MEMBER OF AN ETHIC COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 The juridical state of nature being, as we have seen, a 
 state of mutual natural hostility, the same remark holds 
 of the ethical state of nature, where each person lies per- 
 
122 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 petually exposed to assaults from the principle of evil ex- 
 tant in himself, and in every other of his fellows. Man- 
 kind (as we observed above) corrupt one another's mora- 
 lity; and, notwithstanding the good-will of individuals, 
 they do, through want of a common central principle, just 
 as were they instruments of the Evil One, distract one 
 another, by having no joint understanding, from pursuing 
 a common good end, and so expose tliemselves to tlic 
 risk of again relapsing under the dominion of the evil they 
 had overcome. Again, as a state of lawless freedom, and 
 independency on any co-active rescripts, is a state of open 
 injustice and war declared against each man by liis neigh- 
 boui', which it behoves every one to quit, in order to com- 
 bine in society political,! in exactly the same way the 
 ethical state of nature is tantamount to an open and per- 
 petual invasion of the principles of virtue, and a state of 
 internal immorality, whence each individual ought, with 
 utmost diligence, to come, as speedily as possible. 
 
 Here we impinge upon a duty altogether sui generis, 
 viz. a duty obtaining not betwixt man and man, but 
 owed by the whole human race to itself. Every class of 
 
 -}• HoBBEs' position, " statut fiominum naturalis est bellum omnium inter 
 omnes," is quite correct when we read " est status belli,'' &c. For al- 
 though, betwixt men uncombined by pubhc statutable enactments, actual 
 war may not arise, still their state (status juridicns) is one wherein each, 
 as his own judge, decides upon his own rights and property, and has for 
 these no security, except what results from his own strength ; and this 
 state of affairs is in very deed an interbelligerent condition, where every 
 one's hand is ready to be turned against his brother. His next position, 
 " cxeundum esse c statu naturali," is a corollary from tlic former, inasmuch 
 as, by this i)osture of affairs, a jK^rpetual lesion of one another's rights 
 takes place, every one claiming to be judge; in his own behalf, and re- 
 fusing to offer others any security in point? of meum and tuum, save his 
 own arbitrary will. 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 123 
 
 Intelligents is, agreeably to objective ideas of pure rea- 
 son, destined to a common and joint end, viz. the pur- 
 suit of the SOVEREIGN, tts their common good. But, 
 since the highest ethic good is not to be attained by each 
 individual's endeavouring separately to carry forward the 
 work of his own moral perfecting, but does, on the con- 
 trary, demand for its realization a general union of hearts 
 and minds, combined into one whole, and purposing 
 the same end, thereby constituting a system, in which, 
 and by the unity whereof, this highest good can alone 
 be brought about, it is manifest to every one that the idea 
 of such a systematic whole, viz. an universal republic 
 under ethic laws, is an idea totally diverse from that of 
 any other moral precept (for those last concern only du- 
 ties in our power to perform), and one that ordains us to 
 aim at a grand whole, whereof it is uncertain whether its 
 realization may stand within or beyond our power ; and 
 consequently the duty imposed by this idea differs entire- 
 ly, both in kind and principle, from all other duties what- 
 soever. The reader will, I doubt not, already be aware 
 that this is a duty which will imperatively demand the 
 pre-supposltion of a still further idea, viz. that of a Su- 
 preme Moral Governor, under whose general superintend- 
 ence and disposing providence the otherwise inadequate 
 efforts of Particulars are concentrated, so as to issue in a 
 joint effect. Let us, however, prosecute the inquiry in- 
 to the rise and source of this our moral need, and see 
 whitherward it may guide ns. 
 
121 OF THE VICTOUV OF THE GOOD 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 THE IDEA OF AN ETHICAL COMMONWEALTH IS THE IDEA OF A 
 PEOPLE OF GOD COMBINED UNDER MORAL LAWS. 
 
 In order to foinid an etliical commonwealth, its indivi- 
 dual members must be repi-esented as subjected to a pub- 
 lic legislation, and those laws by which singular members 
 are conjoined into a whole must be regarded as com- 
 mandments issuing from some common lawgiver. When 
 the state to be erected is political, then is the collective 
 will of that artificial body produced by the association, 
 the legislator {i. e. author of the constitution) : — juridical 
 legislation resting upon the principle, " that each per- 
 son's FREEDOM IS LIMITED, AGREEABLY TO LAW UNIVERSAL, 
 BY THOSE CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO WHICH ALONE IT CAN 
 HARMONIZE WITH EVERY OTHER PERSON\s FREEDOM; 
 
 where, consequently the general will extorts outward obe- 
 dience by virtue of its title of co-action. f But if the com- 
 mon wealth is ethical, the people cannot be regarded as them- 
 selves legislating ; for in this society all laws tend to pro- 
 mote morality — a thing quite internal, and therefore not 
 falling under any public outward human legislation what- 
 soever, this last concerning itself only with the legality 
 of actions. There must consequently, some one, other 
 than the people itself, be assigned as the public and yet in- 
 ward legislator of an ethical state. Again, ethic laws are 
 never understood to emanate originally from the will of 
 
 t Tlie above is the Supreme Principle of I,n\v. (The reader will 
 find tliis position stated and cxi)hiined in my transhilion of Kant's 
 Klhics, p. 102 f», §§ B, C, and 1).— Tii.) 
 
OVER THE EVIL rRlNCIl'LE. 125 
 
 a Superior, i. e. are not like statutes, which, until cmho- 
 died and publislied in an edict, obtain no obligatory force ; 
 for statutable decrees of this kind never can become parts 
 of any moral legislation, and the duty of obeying them 
 would, however diligently observed, beget no free and 
 independent virtue, but would remain always among the 
 offices of CO-ACTION. The Supreme Lawgiver in an ethi- 
 cal society can therefore be such an one alone, in regard 
 of whom, all real duties,f whether juridical or ethical, 
 may be figured as founded on his commandment ; who 
 is farther a searcher of the heart, percipient of the in- 
 most sentiments of all, and adjudging — as must take 
 place in every commonwealth, — to each what his actions 
 may be worth. This, however, is the Idea of God* as Mo- 
 ral Governor of the World ; wherefore we conclude, our 
 ETHICAL STATE cau Only be cogitated as a folk combined 
 
 f Whenever any thing is acknowledged to be duty, although only 
 imposed by the arbitrary will of a human lawgiver, then may we forth- 
 with assert that obedience to it is enjoined by the Divine Will. IVIuni- 
 cipal Enactments are certainly not Divine Commands ; and yet, where 
 lawful, it cannot be doubted that obedience to them is divinely com- 
 manded. The saying, " IVc must hearken to Ovd rather than to 7uan," sig- 
 nifies no more than this, viz. that should any earthly legislation enjoin 
 something immediately contradictory of the moral law, obedience is not 
 to be rendered : where, conversely, I take occasion to remark, that when 
 a municipal unimmoral statute is opposed by an alleged statutable divine 
 behest, then is there good ground of suspicion that the declaration of 
 the will of God is supposititious ; for then it collides- with a clear 
 plain duty ; and that any given document really does contain Divine de- 
 crees, never can be so authenticated by any experience or observation, 
 as to warrant mankind in setting aside, for its sake, an otherwise plain 
 and existing duty. 
 
 * Any reader who may think the text obscure, would do well to con- 
 suit Kant's chapter on Conscience, Ethics, p. 277-81, § 13 — Tu. 
 
i2G OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 by aiul under a divine commandment, i. e. as a People of 
 God standing under ethic laws. 
 
 A people of God may no doubt be imagined, combined 
 under legal statutes, where not the morality, but only the 
 legality, of conduct is inquired into. This would be a 
 juridical commonwealth, whereof the legislator is God, and 
 the constitution of such a state would be theocratical ; 
 and, in so far as certain men, in the capacity of priests, 
 immediately receive and communicate his laws, the ad- 
 ministration would be aristocratical. An institution of 
 this sort, however, resting, in form and substance, mere- 
 ly on historical events, is not what we are in search of, 
 and cannot be looked upon as solving the problem pro- 
 jected by pure morally legislative reason. In the next 
 apotome, containing a historical account of the advent of 
 a Kingdom of God, we shall consider this theocracy as a 
 society regulated by juridico-civil laws, and where the le- 
 gislator, although God, acts as an outward lawgiver only ; 
 whereas in the present apotome, we investigate such a 
 philosophical economy as may depend on a legislation 
 purely inward, and be a society standing under laws of 
 virtue, i. e. constituting " a People of God zealmis of 
 good works.*' 
 
 Contradistinguished from the notion of a people of God, 
 is that of a rabble, or mob, whose Ringleader is the 
 Evil Principle — a gang intent on propagating mischief, 
 and on hindering the other association from taking place, 
 although the principle threatening the sentiments of vir- 
 tue is also within, and only by a figure spoken of as an 
 extraneous power. 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 127 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 THE IDEA OF A PEOPLE OF GOD IS (bY HUMAN ENDEAVOUR) 
 ONLY TO BE REALIZED BY FORMING A CHURCH. 
 
 Sublime as is the idea of an ethical commonwealth, it 
 can never be fully attained or realized by man, but dwin- 
 dles in his hands down to an institution that does no more 
 than transcribe the Form of the other ; for when we come 
 to the materials requisite for instituting such a whole, we 
 find that our means are very much abridged, being con- 
 tracted by the narrow limits of our moral nature. 
 
 Establishing a moral people of God, is therefore a work 
 whereof the execution is to be expected, not from man, 
 but only from God himself. It is not, however, upon that 
 account allowable for mankind to resign himself to sloth, 
 and never to bestir himself so as actively to forward this 
 institution, but to devolve all on Providence, each man 
 attending singly to his own private moral necessities, and 
 leaving the supervisorship and care of the ethical interests 
 of the race to the guardianship of a higher wisdom. So 
 far from that, mankind ought to proceed as if every 
 thing depended on himself; and it is only under this con- 
 dition, that there is room to hope that a Higher Wisdom 
 may crown with success the efforts of our well-meant 
 schemes. 
 
 The wish of every honest-minded man therefore is, that 
 " the Kingdom of God may come and His Will be done on 
 Earth ;" but then, the question arises, what have man- 
 kind to do in order that this may come to pass. 
 
128 OF THE VICTOUY OF THE GOOD 
 
 An ethical common weal tli under the divine moral legis- I 
 lation is a church, and in so far as such ideal state is no 
 ohjcct of possible experience, it is called the invisible 
 CHURCH (a naked idea of the union of all the virtuous un- 
 der the immediate divine moral government, which ide;i 
 is the archetype whereon man has to regulate every eccle- 
 siastical institution framed by him). The visible church 
 is an actual combination of given members, in a society, that 
 endeavours to copy the form and feature of the other ; and 
 as every association combined by public laws, exhibits dif- 
 ferences in rank — those who only obey the law differing in 
 some degree from those who look after its execution — so 
 the collective mass of the church is called the Jlock or con- 
 gregation, while the superiors are called guides or shep- 
 herds, who administer affairs in room of the Invisible 
 Head, and in this latter capacity are styled ministers or 
 servants of the church. A similar denomination occurs in 
 the political fabric, where the visible Head of the com- 
 monwealth not unfrequently styles himself the first servant 
 of the state, though he acknowledges no superior, perhaj)s 
 not even the collective body of the nation. A true visible 
 church is that which represents the moral kingdom of God 
 on earth. Its conditions and criteria are as follow : 
 
 I. Universality, consequently a numerical oneness 
 of the church, the groundwork of which unity must spring 
 from the constitution and genius of the church itself; so 
 that, however torn and split by fortuitous sects and dif- 
 fering opinions, its fundamental principles are such as 
 must eventually bring about unity of view, and lead to a 
 general amalgamation of all parties in one single ecclesi- 
 astical society. 
 
 H. Quality, which is purity ; the union being held to- 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 129 
 
 gctlier by no other than ethic laws : — and equally clari- 
 fied from the timidity of superstition and the whimsies 
 of fanaticism. 
 
 III. The RELATIVITY Is a mutual relationship of free- 
 dom, where not only is the inward relation of members 
 to one another that of equal freedom; but where also the 
 outward relation of the church to the state is based on a 
 free, independent, and reciprocal alliance. (There can 
 therefore be no room, in a well-regulated church, either 
 for HIERARCHY or iLLUMiNATiSM, which last is a species 
 of DEMOCRATIC iuward light, each member claiming par- 
 ticular inspirations, adapted to his own head, and collid- 
 ing with those of others.) 
 
 IV. Modality. The church's constitution must be 
 UNCHANGEABLE, admitting, hovv^ever, from time to time^ 
 modifications, according to place and circumstance ; for 
 which casual by-laws the churcli contains a sure and 
 stable groundwork in the a priori idea of its own end. (Its 
 establishment rests therefore on primary laws, published, 
 as it vfere, once for all, in a fixed code : it cannot conse- 
 quently be founded on arbitrary formulte, for these, want- 
 ing the a priori authentication of reason, are fortuitous, 
 changeable, and open to contradiction.) 
 
 The Church, or visible ethical commonwealth, regard- 
 ed as the representative of a city of God, has, by dint of 
 those its peculiar principles, a constitution apart and by it- 
 self, and betwixt it and any political constitution there is 
 no comparison or similitude at all to be made. It is not 
 monarchical, under Pope or Patriarch ; nor aristocra- 
 ticai,, under Bishops and Prelates ; nor yet democrati- 
 CAL, as among independent sectarian Illuminati. Its con- 
 stitutional frame- work might best be likened to that of a 
 
130 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 Family under a common, invisible, and moral Father, 
 whose eldest and most holy Son, who best knows his 
 Father's Will, and is by near ties of consanguinity con- 
 nected with all its branches, does, by unfolding and ex- 
 plaining to the younger brethren what he has more fully 
 learnt of the parental will, occupy the stead of the paternal 
 head. They, upon this account, revere the Father in him, 
 and thus enter into a general fraternal union and lasting 
 alliance of hearts. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF EVERY CHURCH INVARIABLY RESTS ON A 
 HISTORICAL BELIEF (bE VEALED FAITH) : THIS MAY BE CALLED 
 CHURCH-FAITH, AND IS BEST FOUNDED ON A HOLY WRIT. 
 
 Pure religious faith, being a naked belief of reason, 
 and capable of being communicated and imparted to every 
 person, is that alone which can serve as a gi'oundwork 
 for a Church Universal. Whereas mere historical belief, 
 grounded only on facts, can spread its influence no far- 
 ther than the narrative has been carried ; and must even 
 then be multifariously limited and circumscribed, as well 
 as by the varying capacity of its auditors to judge of its 
 credibility. And yet experience teaches a faulty weak- 
 ness of our nature, that must prevent us from ever count- 
 ing so much on the strength of that pure faith as it well 
 deserves, and induce us to distrust our hope of erecting a 
 church on it alone. 
 
 Mankind's short-sightedness in supersensible matters is 
 so great, that even while they justly value and appreciate 
 
OVER THE EVIL FUINCTPLE. 131 
 
 this pure moral faith (which, upon the whole, is in their 
 eyes, and must indeed be most self-evidently convincing), 
 they are with difficulty brought to admit, that a steady 
 and diligent prosecution of a moral life is really all that 
 God demands to render them his acceptable subjects. 
 Obligation they cannot well figure to themselves, other- 
 wise than as a worship to be performed toward God, 
 which worship respects not so much the inward moral 
 worth of actions, as looks rather to this, that they are 
 offered to God, in order by passive resignation and obe- 
 dience to please him. They will not suffer themselves to 
 be persuaded, that by the fulfilment of their duties to 
 their fellow-men, they do in very deed truly obey the 
 Divine Commands ; and that, consequently, in all their 
 actions, — in every thing they morally compass and avoid, 
 they do unremittingly serve and worship God, seeing 
 that it is absolutely impossible to approach him by any 
 closer or nearer worship; our actions affecting mun- 
 dane Intelligents only, but never placing us in contact 
 with the Deity. A potentate on earth often wishes to be 
 HONOURED and EXTOLLED by professions of subjection, 
 thinking, that without these, he cannot count upon so 
 much obedience to his edicts as he deems necessary for 
 the maintenance of his sway. Besides, mankind, even 
 when most enlightened, take an immediate complacency 
 in demonstrations of respect; and hence duty, so far 
 forth as it is at the same time based on a Divine Behest, 
 comes to be discharged as if it were a concern rather of 
 the Deity than of Humanity ; by all which it happens, that 
 the idea of divine worship is placed in room of the idea of 
 a pure moral religion. 
 
 Since all religion consists in our regarding God as that 
 
132 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 awful lawgiver who enjoins upon us all our duties, the 
 next point for consideration in arranging an institution of 
 life, is, " How God wills to be feared and obeyed ?" 
 Again, the Di't'ine Will commands either by merely sta- 
 tutable or by ruRE moral laws. Touching the latter, 
 every one may straightway know, from his own reason, 
 what that will of God is which is the substratum of all 
 religion. Indeed the idea of Godhead takes its rise from 
 our consciousness of the Moral Law, coupled with the 
 need felt by reason of assuming somewhere a higher 
 power, able to procure to that law whatever whole and 
 entire effect a created universe will admit of, and to make 
 that effect conspire and harmonize with the moral scope 
 of all things. And as a notion of the Divine Will, framed 
 purely after the standard of the moral law, allows us 
 to have but one God, so by necessary consequence can 
 there be room only for one religion, and that, too, purely 
 moral. Were it, however, even conceded that there arc 
 divine statutable enactments, and religion made to consist 
 in their observance, still an acquaintance with them is at- 
 tainable, not by any effort of reason, but singly by revela- 
 tion ; and such revelation, whether imparted to the mass 
 publicly, or privately to single individuals for the pur- 
 pose of being propagated by writing or tradition, would 
 found a historical but never a pure rational belief. 
 And although statutable divine laws be admitted (which 
 can be recognised as obligatory, not of themselves, but only 
 by dint of a revelation of the divine will), still the pure 
 MORAL legislation, whereby God's will is originally en- 
 graven on our heart, is not only the indefeasible condition 
 precedent of all genuine religion whatsoever, but is just 
 that wherein this last properly consists, and toward which 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCirLE. 133 
 
 the statutable cau only work, as containing a mean of its 
 propagation and advancement. 
 
 When therefore a response, valid for every man, re- 
 garded SIMPLY AS MAN, is to be given to the interroga- 
 tory, " How God wills to be obeyed and Avorshipped ?" 
 we cannot hesitate in replying, that the legislator's will 
 must be purely moral, for the statutable legislation (rest- 
 ed on revelation) can only be looked upon as contingent, 
 and as something that has not yet, and never can, be ad- 
 dressed to all, consequently, as what is not binding upon 
 all mankind generally. Wherefore not they who cry 
 " Lord, Lord^" but they " who do the Will of God ^ L e. 
 not those who, by setting forth his praise conformably 
 to revealed conceptions, which all mankind cannot have 
 (or by lauding his Ambassador as a being of Divine Ori- 
 ginal), but those wJio, by good moral deportment (upon 
 which point the divine will is known to all), seek to 
 please him, are they who give that true worship which 
 he exacts. 
 
 But when we regard ourselves bound to behave not only 
 as men simply, but likewise as citizens of a divine state 
 on earth, and deem it our duty to promote the existence 
 and wellbeing of that society which we called a church, 
 then it should seem that naked reason can give no answer 
 to the question, " How God may will to be worshipped 
 IN A CHURCH (as a congregation of God) ?" and that a sta- 
 tutable legislation, proclaimed by revelation, were indis- 
 pensable. This again would lay the foundation of a his- 
 torical belief in the facts revealed, and may, when contra- 
 distinguished from the pure religious or ethical belief, be 
 called CHURCH-FAITH. The former is conversant singly 
 with those individual acts which do in their aggregate 
 
134 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 make up the matter of the worship of God, where all our 
 duties are discharged by the spirit of a moral sentiment, 
 as if they were divine commandments. A church, on the 
 other hand, as a union of many, in an ethic commonweal, 
 requires a public obligement, i. e. a certain ecclesiastical 
 Form, founded on conditions occurring in experience and 
 observation. This form may be various, and being fortui- 
 tous, cannot be acknowledged to be obligatory, apart from 
 some statutable divine behest ; and yet the fixing of the 
 Form ought not upon this account to be regarded as ex- 
 clusively devolving upon our heavenly Lawgiver. On the 
 contrary, grounds are not wanting for the assumption, 
 that God's will rather is that we ourselves should carry 
 out into execution reason's idea of such a commonwealth ; 
 and that how many forms soever of church polity may 
 hitherto have been tried in vain, mankind are not to cease 
 from pursuing this design by new attempts, avoiding to 
 the uttermost the faults of their predecessors, the end 
 and aim being imperative, and intrusted to their own en- 
 deavour. There is, therefore, no insuperable ground for 
 holding the laws forming and instituting any church to 
 have been enacted by divine authority. There is even 
 presumption in declaiing them to be so, to the end that 
 we may supersede the toil of labouring steadily to better 
 and improve its form, or perhaps a usurping of higher 
 authority, in order, under the pretence of a divine com- 
 mission, to impose on the multitude the yoke of ecclesias- 
 tical traditions. Nor would there, on the ollior hand, be 
 less arrogance in peremptorily denying that the mode in 
 which some given church has been framed, may not per- 
 Ijaps be a special arrangement of the Almighty, more par- 
 ticularly should this church, so I'ar as we can see, com- 
 
OVEll THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 135 
 
 pletely harmonize with natural religion, and be farther 
 distinguished by the characteristic of having appeared all 
 at once, without any assignable march of intellect on the 
 part of the"^ public in theologic matters, that could have 
 prepared the way, or account for its arrival. 
 
 Doubts thus obtaining whether God or mankind them- 
 selves should institute a church, the latter have betrayed 
 a bias to fall into that religion which consists mainly of 
 a Divine Worship {cultus) ; and as all worships rest on 
 arbitrary rescripts, they are biassed to believe in divinely- 
 enacted statutes, whence springs the supposition, that 
 above and beyond the best course of life that man can fol- 
 low agreeably to the dictates of pure moral religion, he 
 must obey a divine law inscrutable by reason, and need- 
 ing a particular revelation, the observance of which com- 
 mandment is intended to be a service done for the imme- 
 diate worship of the Deity (quite apart from the observ- 
 ance of those precepts promulgated by reason as his laws). 
 Thus it happens, that men never will consider church- 
 membership — associations for regulating \isForm — or even 
 PUBLIC institutions, as things in themselves necessary for 
 forwarding the moral part of religion, but only as things 
 requii-ed, in order that, by solemnities, confessions of re- 
 vealed laws, and the observance of the formal ritual of 
 the church (which last is itself only a mean toward a mo- 
 ral end), they may, as they say, serve their God. Al- 
 though the whole of these observances are morally-indif- 
 ferent acts, they are, just upon this very account, that they 
 are done singly with a view to his worship, reputed to be 
 the more acceptable in his sight. The endeavours of man- 
 kind to institute an ethical commonwealth have, therefore, 
 
136 OF THE VICTOIIY OF TllK GOOD 
 
 naturallyf gone hand in hand with a historic creed of 
 some sort or other. The creed of the church will always 
 be found anterior to the pure ethical belief. Temples 
 (fanes consecrated to the public worsliip of the Deity) are 
 earlier than churches (congregational assemblies for in- 
 culcating and enlivening the sentiments of morality) ; and 
 PRIESTS (anointed administrators of sacred rites) are prior 
 to the CLERGY (teachers of pure moral religion) ; indeed 
 to this day they are in many countries deemed their su- 
 perior in rank, and usually held in greater estimation by 
 the vulgar. 
 
 Since, then, it is now cnce for all the case, that a sta- 
 tutable church-creed is invariably superadded to the pure 
 a priori ethical belief as a vehicle for promulgating this 
 last, and a mean tending to combine mankind in a public 
 association for moral ends ; it is obvious enough that not 
 TRADITION, but WRITING, must prcscrvc the faith unchang- 
 ed, and give it a uniform and general spread. A written 
 revelation alone can inspire contemporaries and posterity 
 with equal veneration, and without it mankind would be 
 left in doubt as to the offices of worship owed to God. A 
 sacred volume is regarded with the greatest awe, even by 
 those (and in particular just by those) who never read it, or 
 who, when they do, can extract from it no coherent notion. 
 With them the edge of all argumentation against its reli- 
 gious tenets is at once dulled by the stunning dictatorial 
 reply — thus it is written ; and hence those passages 
 which arc understood to state an article of faith, go by 
 the name of proofs or warrants. The established inter- 
 preters of such a Holy Writ receive from their office a 
 
 t Morally, tliis process should be reversed. 
 
 \ 
 
OVER THE EVIL PUINCIPLE. 137 
 
 kind of consecration ; and history shows that no ecclesi- 
 astical faith, bottomed upon a Scripture, has ever perished, 
 but has survived the most disastrous convulsions of the 
 state ; whereas church-creeds, only rested on tradition, 
 and supported by ritual observances handed down by an- 
 tiquity, have not outlived the decline and death of the 
 community. How fortunatef that such a book has been 
 thrown into our hands, containing, side by side with its 
 statutes and belief, a most (Complete and pure moral theory 
 of religion, wherewith the other (considered as the vehi- 
 cle of its introduction) can be shown to be in the fullest 
 liarmony — a happy conjunction of events, winch, work- 
 ing together Avith the end aimed at by it, and the 
 difficulty of explaining by natural causes, whence its 
 enlightening efficacy to our race, has enabled it to main- 
 tain its credit and authority as if it were a revelation. 
 
 There are still a few things connected with this notion 
 of a belief in revelation . 
 
 There is but one (true) religion, although there may 
 be various kinds of belief. We may even add, that 
 notwithstanding the multiplicity of ecclesiastical institu- 
 tions, kept asunder by diversity of creed, one and the 
 same true religion may be found pervading. 
 
 It is therefore more convenient to say " this individual 
 
 t An expression intended to apply to every thing that can be wished 
 or hoped for, which we scarcely venture to anticipate, and cannot pro- 
 cure for ourselves, even by the most diligent forecasting of the future. 
 When, therefore, we find that such unlooked-for benefits have really 
 fallen to our lot, we can ascribe the gift to no other cause than the be- 
 nignity of Providence. 
 
138 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 is of this or tltat (Jewisli, Mahometan, Christian, Catho- 
 lic, Lutheran) faith," than to say, " he is of this orihiU 
 religion" The term religion ought never to be employ- 
 ed in catechisms or addresses to the great bulk of the 
 people. It is too learned and unintelligible. Indeed no 
 modern language possesses a corresponding synonym. 
 The boor invariably understands by religion his church- 
 creed, which can be laid before him in a seen and embo- 
 died form ; whereas religion lies hidden in the man with- 
 in, based upon his moral sentiments. Most men were 
 honoured too much by ascribing to them any religion. 
 They neither know nor desire any, and the established 
 church-creed is all that this word suggests to them. Re- 
 ligious wars, by which nations have often been distract- 
 ed and blood-stained, have never been any thing else 
 than brawls about creeds of form and show, and the per- 
 secuted ought properly to have complained, not that the 
 oppressor hindered him from worshipping God according 
 to the dictates of his own conscience (for that no out- 
 ward force can do), but that he was prevented from pub- 
 licly celebrating the rituals of his church-creed. 
 
 Whenever a Church, as is the general use and wont, 
 claims to be the Only Church Universal (although 
 grounded on the tenets of a particular revelation, which, 
 being historical, cannot reasonably be expected from 
 every one), then are they who refuse in any wise to ac- 
 knowledge her particular form of creed straightway de- 
 nounced as Infidels, and hated with the whole heart. 
 He who partially swerves from it in unessentials, is held 
 Ijiinted with nETEiiODOxy, and shunned as contagious. 
 Lastly, should any one, though a member of tlie church, 
 stimible at any of the essentials of its established faitli, 
 
OVER THK EVIL I'llINCIPLE. 139 
 
 then lie is called — especially if he labour to spread abroad 
 his error — a heretic,! '^^^^ ^^5 ^^^^ ^ traitor, considered 
 far more culpable than any foreign foe ; and as the Ro- 
 man senate interdicted from fire and water those who, 
 without permission, passed the Rubicon, so, by ecclesi- 
 astical censures, the Church puts all heretics, as outlaws 
 from its pale, under the bann ; and with cursing and ex- 
 communication devotes them to the infernal gods. The 
 assumed infallible accuracy of the teachers or heads of the 
 Church in points of faith, is called orthodoxy ; and this 
 again may be divided into a despotic or brutal and a liberal 
 orthodoxy. Were that church which proclaims its for- 
 mula of faith as universally binding styled Catholic, 
 and those churches again which oppose themselves to this 
 universal claim — (although they would willingly advance 
 it for themselves if they durst) — styled Protestant, then 
 may a curious observer detect many instances highly lau- 
 dable of Protestant Catholics, and several most offensive of 
 Arch-Catholic Protestants. The former are men of an open 
 and enlarged mind (for which no thanks to their church), 
 and make a singular contrast with the narrow and con- 
 tracted views of the latter, who certainly gain nothing by 
 the comparison. 
 
 -|- Mongols call Thibet {according to Gregorii, Alphab. Tibet, pag. 11) 
 Tangut-Chadzar, i. e. the land of dwelling-houses, thereby distinguish- 
 ing its inhabitants from themselves, as the tent-inhabiting Nomades of 
 the wilderness. Hence the Thibetese are called Chadzars, which 
 was subsequently corrupted, as in German, into Ketzer; and because 
 the Mongols were addicted to the Thibetese faith (in the Great Llama), 
 which seems to approach very near to Manichseism (possibly Manichae- 
 ism thence took its origin), and brought it with them when they burst 
 into Europe, it came to pass that, during a long period, the terms Hcc 
 retici and Manichai were exchangeable. 
 
110 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 THE PURE ETHICAL BELIEF IS THE SUPREME EXPOUNDER OF 
 ALL ECCLESIASTICAL CREEDS WHATSOEVER. 
 
 Our readers are already aware, that although a church 
 wants one most important mark of its being the true 
 Church, viz. a valid claim to universality, when founded 
 on revealed tenets, inasmuch as their historical ground- 
 work — though clothed in writing — spread far and wide 
 — and thus guaranteed to the latest posterity — never 
 can become the object of a joint and universally-excep' 
 tionless conviction ; still, such is the inbred infirmity of 
 mankind, as always to require for the last abstractions — 
 the grounds and ideas of naked reason — some tangible 
 cover and confirmation from the testimony of observation 
 and experience (a consideration to which, in introducing 
 any doctrine, intended to be of catholic reception, an eye 
 is always to be had) ; and hence some one ecclesiastico- 
 historical creed, from among those already extant, must 
 be made available for that purpose. 
 
 Successfully to combine with this a posteriori belief, 
 which, it would seem, chance had thrown into our hands, 
 a stable moral faith, will depend mainly on the exegetical 
 mode in which the revealed text is expounded and unfold- 
 ed; which must receive a perpetual interpretation paral- 
 lel to the known practical behests of the religion of pure 
 reason. The theoretical and speculative parts of any 
 church creed are for us devoid of moral interest, unless 
 they assist us, and are found conducive to the discharge of 
 all our duties qua divinely commanded (regard had to the 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE, 141 
 
 imperatives of morality, as if they were divine command- 
 ments, being in fact the very essence of all religion). An 
 interpretation of this sort may, no doubt, not only fre- 
 quently seem, but often really be strained ; and yet the 
 text must be thus forced into a moral dress, in preference 
 to the verbal and literal meaning, whenever this last sa- 
 vours nothing of morality, or perhaps tends even to snap 
 our moral springs.* 
 
 Upon reflection, it will be found that this has been 
 done, both in ancient and modern times, with every va- 
 riety of Sacred Scriptures ; and that prudent, honest- 
 minded teachers had continued so long to gloss and refine 
 
 * Take as an instance the fifty-ninth Psalm, vei. 11-16, where a prayer 
 for revenge is pushed to a dreadful length. Michaelis (Morals, part ii. 
 p. 202) approves of this pi-ayer, and adds, The Psalms are inspired ; 
 and when we find in them petitions for vengeance, it cannot be improper 
 to call down punishment on the guilty, for we cannot have a holier 
 MORAL SYSTEM THAN THAT IN THE BiBLE. Let US confine our atten- 
 tion to those concluding words, and then ask, is morality to be expound- 
 ed after the Bible ? or ought not rather the Bible to be tested by the 
 standard of morality ? I will not here pause to inquire how this Psalm, 
 and another passage deemed equally inspired, are to be reconciled, — " Vc 
 have hear A that it hath Icen said hj them of old time" &c ; " Irnt I say unto 
 you, love your enemies ; Wess them that ciirse you," &c. ; but will just at once 
 try how the Psalm can be adapted and accommodated to my existing mo- 
 ral principles (e. g. thus it may be assumed, that not personal enemies, 
 but that under such a figure our wicked passions, those invisible and far 
 more ruinous enemies, are attacked and held up to execration). Should 
 this prove impracticable, then 1 will suppose it has only a political, not a 
 moral sense, and refers to that relation in which the Jews believed them- 
 selves to stand with God as their temporal regent. The meaning will 
 then be somewhat not unlike the spirit of that other passage, " Vengeance 
 is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord" commonly understood to warn us 
 against revenging ourselves, although most probably it points to the law 
 obtaining in every country, that satisfaction for injuries is to be sought 
 in the Sovereign's Tribunals, where the Courts do not justify the re- 
 vengeful malice of the prosecutor, but allow him to conclude for what- 
 ever damages and penalty he pleases, and can. 
 
142 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 upon the text, that tlicy at length brought it very ncarly 
 to square with the general precepts of morality. The 
 sages of Greece and Rome acted thus with their fabulous 
 histories of the gods ; and the coarsest polytheism was 
 gradually sublimated into a symbolical representation of 
 the One Divine Essence. The vicious pranks of the gods, 
 as well as the wild but beautiful fancies of the poets, were 
 first shrouded, and then presented to view under a mysteri- 
 ous apparel, that made the popular belief approach the sem- 
 blance of a sensible and edifying morality. Modern Juda- 
 ism, nay, Christianity itself, consists in great measure of 
 such strained senses, although in either case, the contortions 
 of the meaning, have unquestionably led to good andneedful 
 ends. Mahometanism itself has been thus dealt with ; and 
 the paradise of the faithful, described as abounding with 
 all sensual voluptuousness, is spiritualized as skilfully as 
 the Song of Solomon. In India the same maxims are cur- 
 rently applied in interpreting the Veda, at least when read 
 to the better-educated classes. That this expedient is prac- 
 ticable with so many different creeds, without always dis- 
 turbing the literal terms of the narrative, arises hence: 
 Long prior to any popular myths, there lay extant in the 
 human mind its primeval substratum for religion, the first 
 rough development of which uncultivated susceptibility 
 did, during the early twilight of dawning knowledge, tend 
 raei-ely to superstitious or hero-worships, and occasioned 
 for their behoof just those various mythic revelations; and 
 thus to those textures woven by the plastic energies of de- 
 pictive fancy, there always has adhered some unconscious 
 trait, sufficiently indicative of the character of their super- 
 sensible original. Neither can such exposition be charged 
 with insincerity, provided we do not insist that the sense 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 143 
 
 given by us to the national legends, or to the holy books, 
 was that intended by the authors ; but, reserving such 
 question for a future inquiry, insist only that it is possi- 
 ble so to construe the intendment of the writer. Even 
 the reading of the Scriptures, and investigations into their 
 import, liave no other view than that of rendering us bet- 
 ter men. Their historical part not having this effect, is 
 sheerly indifferent, and may be dealt with as we list : (the 
 Historical Belief " is dead, being alone ;" i. e. the profes- 
 sion of it by itself contains nothing, — and leads to no re- 
 sults — but those, in which we are morally unconcerned.) 
 
 Admitting that a particular document contains a Di- 
 vine Revelation, the preliminary ground of this credence 
 must be, that the doctrines taught are worthy of God ; and 
 thereof the surest test and criterion is, that ^^ all Scripture 
 given by inspiration of God must be profitable for doctrine, 
 for reproof for correction, and instruction in righteousness," 
 &c. &c. ; and since this last — the moral amendment of our 
 species — is the proper aim of the religion of reason, it re- 
 sults that Natural Religion must supply the Supreme Ca- 
 non of all Scriptural Exegesis. This religion it is that is 
 " the Spirit of God guiding us into all truth," and that does, 
 by instructing and redressing the depravities of ignorance, 
 quicken us with principles of conduct. Moreover, it re- 
 fers all the historic contents of the Scripture to the stand- 
 ard and springs of the pure Moral Law of Righteousness, 
 this being that alone in any ecclesiastical confession which 
 is the sum and substance of religion proper. No search- 
 ing or expounding of the Scriptures can at any time pro- 
 ceed on any other principle, *' and we can only find in them 
 eternal life so far forth as they bear witness to this truth" 
 
 Joint-interpreter of the written rule is added as subor- 
 
144 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 dinatc adjunct, biblical learning. The Authority 
 OF Holy Writ, tlie wortliiest, and, in this enlightened 
 quarter of the globe, the only instrument fitted to conjoin 
 mankind in church communion, constitutes what we 
 have called Faith Ecclesiastical. This popular belief 
 cannot be neglected, for the populace are rootedly fixed 
 in the opinion that no tenets based alone on reason are 
 suited to supply them with an infallible rule, and hence 
 clamour for a revelation from God, and insist on having 
 the church formulary of faith historically verified by an 
 inquiry into its origin. Again, since man's wisdom and 
 skill cannot waft him into Heaven, in order to bring 
 thence the credentials authenticating the mission of the 
 first Teacher, he must rest contented with those tests, — 
 apart from the inward evidence of the matter revealed, — 
 derived from the circumstances under which the new 
 faith appeared. Here he must acquiesce in the narrative 
 of contemporaries ; the writers of antiquity must be ran- 
 sacked, and the dead languages diligently searched, before 
 any estimate can be struck of the credibility of those an- 
 cient Annalists. Thus learning and biblical criticism 
 arc indispensable to support a church rising on a Holy 
 Writ, although superfluous toward either establishing or 
 enforcing the principles of common morality and natural 
 religion. They do, however, effectually prop up the fa- 
 bric of Church Authority, so long as its first advent is 
 not seen to be attended by some palpable absurdities or 
 deformities, that at once discredit its pretence to be an 
 immediate institution from the Deity; and tliis should be 
 enough to remove all obstacles out of the way of those 
 who think they experience from this idea a positive con- 
 firmation of their moral faith, aiul do ui>on that account 
 
OVEK THE EVIL PllINCIPLE. 145 
 
 the more readily embrace it. But learning is needed not 
 only for showing the genuineness and authenticity of the 
 Sacred Writings, but also for their interpretation. How 
 can the unlearned, who reads his Bible only in translations, 
 be certified of the accuracy of the version ? Even the bib- 
 lical expositor who is versant in the ancient tongues must 
 provide himself with very extended histoi'ical information ; 
 and much critical knowledge is required, to enable him to 
 extract from the state, manners, and opinions of the 
 olden world, such a digested view as may open and unfold 
 to his congregation the spirit and genius of the text. 
 
 Natural religion and biblical learning are therefore 
 the only authorized interpreters and guardians of a holy 
 record. Evidently the Divine must not be disturbed 
 by the arm of the magistrate from publicly propounding 
 whatever insight or discov^eries he may have reaped in 
 this field, neither is he to be lied to the narrow limits of 
 certain articles of belief; for were the state so to usurp, 
 then would the Laic constrain the Church-man to follow 
 iu his wake, and to abide singly by those opinions for 
 which, after all, the laity were first indebted to the learn- 
 ing and instruction of the clergy. If the state is cautious 
 to provide men learned in theology, whose fraudulent 
 and corrupt manners will not discountenance all they 
 would recommend, and to whose conscientious labours 
 it can safely intrust the entire administration of the ec- 
 clesiastical commonwealth, then has the sovereign done 
 all which the ends and jurisdiction of Civil Society entitle 
 him to do. But to intrude himself into the schools of 
 divinity, and to force to church-conformity, by taking a 
 share in theological polemic, is a usurpation beneath the 
 dignity of the head of the state, which nothing save the 
 
146 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 indiscreetness of a mob could ever liave demanded ; for 
 those literary controversies, when not waged from the 
 pulpit, always leave the church-going public in the secu- 
 rity of profound repose. 
 
 Pretences, however, are sometimes made to the office 
 of interpreter, where both Reason and Learning are dis- 
 pensed with, and an internal feeling is set up as light suf- 
 ficient whereby at once to discern the true meaning of the 
 Scripture, and also to perceive its divine original. Ques- 
 tionless it must be conceded, that " whoever obeys its 
 precepts, and does what it prescribes, will by all means 
 find that the doctrine is of God." The very incentive to 
 good actions and upright conduct felt from its perusal, 
 must convince him on whom the Scripture takes such an 
 effect, that its contents are indeed divine; for this feeling 
 is nothing else than the eflfect of the moral law, which, 
 by transfixing the soul with inliest reverence, is on that 
 very account deservedly esteemed a divine behest. But, 
 little as any feeling can serve for a foundation for any 
 law, or serve as a criterion of that law's morality, — still 
 less can any feeling serve for a certain index, enabling us 
 to conclude upon any immediate illapses of divine in- 
 fluence : for to bring about any change felt in the inner 
 man, obviously more than one single cause may possibly 
 conspire ; and, in such a case as that now under consider- 
 ation, the very morality of the doctrine tallying with the 
 Moral Law of Reason is of itself a sufficient ground to 
 account for such effiict ; nay, what is more, whenever any 
 experienced moral incentive can by possibility be traced 
 to such an original, it is our imperative duty to deduce 
 our moral feelings from that their legitimate source, un- 
 less, indeed, it be contended that we should unlock and 
 
 \ 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 14T 
 
 throw wide tlie portals of Unreason to every species of 
 fanaticism, and even hazard bereaving the emotion re- 
 verence itself of its a priori dignity, by bringing it into 
 ambiguous juxtaposition with every phantastic fit or start 
 of the sensory. Feelings belong to each particular indi- 
 vidual for himself alone; even when the law by which, 
 or according to which, they are originated, has been pre- 
 viously investigated and ascertained ; and hence no feel- 
 ing, be it of what sort soever it may, can be recommend- 
 ed or trusted as a touchstone of revealed truth : feelings 
 convey no information of things beyond and without us; 
 they exhibit to us no more than the manner, — whether 
 agreeable or disagreeable, — in which our own passive sub-p 
 ject is affected ; and upon our mental states of liking or 
 dislike no knowledge of any object can be based. 
 
 Holy Writ is therefore the only rule of ecclesiastical 
 belief; nor can it have any expounder save the religion of 
 pure REASON working together with scripturary learn- 
 ing (which last concerns itself with the faith's historic 
 part). Of those two interpreters, the former is alone 
 authentic and valid universally for the whole world, 
 while the latter is doctrinal only, shaping from time to 
 time, and framing, the church-creed of a particular nation 
 into a permanently fixed and self-conserving system. 
 Touching the last, it seems to be inevitable, that, in the 
 long run, the historical faith should not slide into an 
 empty belief that trusts to the better insight of those 
 learned in the Scripture, — a state of things certainly not 
 over-creditable to human nature, but which may be amp- 
 ly counterbalanced and redressed wherever public free- 
 dom of thought obtains. In fact, this unshackled in- 
 tercourse of thought is a just compensation, that the citi>- 
 
148 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 zen is riglitfully entitled to chullenge from the state and 
 cburch ; seeing that it is only where the learned submit 
 their speculations to general examination, remaining, how- 
 ever, themselves all the while open and awake to the in- 
 creasing illumination of farther lights, that they can count 
 upon the continued confidence of their countrymen, or 
 expect that members of the literary republic will give 
 heed to their decisions. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 THE OBSERVED THANSIT OF THE CHURCH-CnEED, WHEREBY IT 
 IS SEEN GRADUALLY TO MERGE AND TO BECOME EVENTUALLY 
 SUNK AND LOST IN THE SUPREMACY AND SOVEREIGNTY OF 
 THE PURE A PRIORI ETHICAL BELIEF, IS A CERTAIN INDEX 
 THAT THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND. 
 
 The sign of the true church is its universality ; and 
 of this last, again, the criterion is necessity and deter- 
 minability in one only mode. A historical belief, on the 
 other hand, — being founded on revelation, i. e. on observa- 
 tion and experience, — is particularly valid only, viz. for 
 those to whom the history has come. It is, moreover, like 
 every other a posteriori knowledge, unaccompanied by the 
 consciousness that the object, be it of knowledge or faith, 
 MUST of necessity be thus constituted, and is impossible 
 ever to be figured in any other manner : it tells us no 
 more than that so the case stands : the belief, according- 
 ly, is entertained by the mind with the consciousness of 
 its contingency. Annals of past events may therefore 
 suffice for supporting an ecclesiastical creed (whereof there 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 149 
 
 may be several) ; but pure moral religion alone it is 
 that, — being founded throughout on the a priori no- 
 tices of reason, — 'Can be recognised as necessary, and 
 the single and alone belief characterizing the true 
 church. Nevertheless, a church may assume this name, 
 although (owing to the inevitable limits put to human 
 reason) a historical belief may attend religion as its con- 
 comitant and introductory vehicle, provided always that 
 this its latter character never be lost sight of, and that 
 the church-creed contain within, the germ of a principle, 
 whereby it is urged to a continual and more close approxi- 
 mation toward pure ethic and religion, until at length 
 these last being attained, the other be superseded and dis- 
 pensed with. Again, since, touching historical dogmata 
 of faith, disputes never can be avoided, an ecclesiastical 
 establishment, resting on an a posteriori creed, may be 
 called the church militant, hoping, however, when one 
 day become immutable and all-embracing, to wear the in- 
 signia of the church triumphant. That faith which im- 
 parts to him who holds it a moral susceptibility for eter- 
 nal bliss is called saving ; and this saving faith can be 
 but one and practical. How manifold soever may be the 
 frames and diversities of church-belief, this practical and 
 saving faith must pervade the whole of them, and consti- 
 tute the kernel of pure religion, gi'adually forth-forming 
 itself, and bursting from the vehiculary husk. That re- 
 ligious belief which leads to a statutable worship of the 
 Deity, is a mercenary and servile faith ; nor can it at 
 any time be regarded as saving, inasmuch as it is not 
 moral. This last is free and ingenuous, springing from 
 the clarified sentiments of the heart. The bondsman ex- 
 pects, by mechanical services of worship — which, though 
 
l50 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 irksome, are destitute of moral wortli, and, extorted by 
 fear or hope, may be equally rendered by the greatest 
 scoundrel — to make himself acceptable to God : while that 
 faith which is of ingenuous birth, goes hand in hand with 
 morally good sentiments, as indispensably requisite to our 
 becoming acceptable in his sight. 
 
 That saving faith which leads to the hope of future bliss 
 consists of two parts: — the one respects that which we 
 cannot do ourselves, viz. the forensical rescinding of past 
 misdeeds before the eye of our Divine Judge, — the other 
 touches what we ought and must do ourselves, viz. a 
 walk and conversation in a new life, conformably to what 
 is duty. The former part of faith is belief in vicarious 
 satisfaction (acquittal of debt, — redemption, — atonement 
 with God) ; the latter is the belief in the possibility of our 
 rendering ourselves acceptable to God, by henceforward 
 leading an honest and upright life. These two constitu- 
 ent conditions compose no more than one belief, and be- 
 long by inseparable necessity to one another. Now a ne- 
 cessary conjunction is in no other way to be comprehended, 
 than by assuming that the one link can be developed from 
 its counterpart : i. e. we must assume either that the belief 
 in absolution from the load of self-entailed guilt will be- 
 get good moral conduct; or that the genuine and practi- 
 cally moral course of life will, agreeably to some law of 
 morally-efficient causes, beget and ground a belief in ple- 
 nary absolution. 
 
 Here there emerges a very extraordinary antinomy and 
 deb.ite of human reason with itself; and the solution of 
 this antinomy, or, should this last prove impossible, dispo- 
 sal of the contested (piestion, can alone enable us to de- 
 termine, whether a historical belief (clmri.h-crecd) must. 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 151 
 
 as an essential part of saving faith, at all times be super- 
 added to the pure religion of reason ; or otherwise, whether 
 the ecclesiastical faith is not, as a mere vehicle, destined 
 ultimately to pass — distant, indeed, though the day be — 
 into a pure a priori belief in religious matters. 
 
 I. On the hypothesis, that satisfaction has been rendered 
 for the sins of mankind, then can there be no difficulty 
 whatever in conceiving that every sinner would gladly 
 have the benefit of the same ; and if this is to be had 
 simply BY BELIEVING (which is tantamount to a mental 
 declaration that the sinner is willing that such redemp- 
 tion shall have taken place for him), no one would hesi- 
 tate a moment about thus appropriating it. But what I 
 cannot comprehend is, how any man of common sense, 
 who is inwardly aware of being obnoxious to punishment, 
 can, in sound and sober earnest, seriously bring himself 
 to believe that he needs only to credit the message that 
 his debt of sins has been discharged for him, and then 
 (as a lawyer would speak) utiliter to accept this satisfac- 
 tion, in order to regard his guilt as taken away ; and that, 
 too, so radicitus and funditus, that the inevitable effect of 
 this persuasion and acceptation of theoffered benefit should 
 be a steady course of good works in all time coming, al- 
 though hitherto — aye ! even up to the immediately preced- 
 ing moment — he had been utterly regardless of morality. 
 No sensible man can bubble himself successfully into 
 this belief, although self-love often transmutes a wish into 
 hope, and deludes us touching those goods toward whose 
 attainment we contribute, and can contribute nothing ; 
 just as if the desired object would come of itself by mere- 
 ly yearning after it. Such a persuasion can only be re- 
 garded as possible when a man holds that this vci'y belief 
 
152 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOU 
 
 itself is something instilled into him from above, and con- 
 sequently as something whei'eof no further account need be 
 rendered to his reason. Supposing that he find this im- 
 practicable, or that he is still too upright to experiment 
 upon himself, so as to bring about an artificial and coun- 
 terfeit confidence, as a mean of ingratiating himself into 
 some other person's favour, then he must, notwithstand- 
 ing the highest awe felt for this transcendent satisfaction, 
 and the keenest wish to participate in its benefits, hold 
 that they are conditioned, and that his strenuously amend- 
 ed life must antecede, before he dare entertain the small- 
 est hope that any such higher merit may stand him in 
 stead. Wherefore, since the historical knowledge of the 
 atonement is part of faith ecclesiastical, the redintegration 
 of character, on the contrary, is a branch of pure mora- 
 lity, it follows that this last must, as condition, take pre- 
 cedence of the other, and that repentance must go before 
 forgiveness. 
 
 II. E contra, mankind being by nature corrupt and de- 
 praved, how can he fancy that — let liim bestir himself 
 ever so much — he can transform himself into a new man, 
 acceptable to God ? Aware of his past transgressions ; 
 still under the thrall and sway of the evil ])rinciple, and 
 devoid of strength to extricate himself from his grasp ; 
 must he not first of all regard the Divine Justice, which 
 he has aroused and set against him, as appeased by vica- 
 rious satisfaction ? and then by means of this faith consi- 
 der himself as born anew, and ready to start upon an al- 
 tered and amended course of life ? wliicli life would then 
 result from his reconciliation and union with the good 
 principle. Unless this be conceded, there is absolutely 
 nothing whereupon to found his ho|)e of ever becoming 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 153 
 
 acceptable to God. Consequently his belief in a riglit- 
 eousness not his own, whereby he is reconciled with God, 
 must go first, as a condition precedent of all exertion to- 
 ward good works ; and forgiveness it is that must go be- 
 fore, and bring forth repentance — which, however, is dia- 
 metrically contrary to the former statement. 
 
 This contest cannot be adjusted by dint of any insight 
 into the first causal determinations of the Freedom of the 
 Human Will, i. e. by any insight into the causes whence 
 it comes to pass that a given individual is either good or 
 evil ; for when question is made as to the last grounds of 
 free optional determination, then we transcend the whole 
 speculative extent of reason. But, practically, where we 
 do not investigate the physical constitution of the will's 
 nature, but consider morally what is first to be done in 
 regulating our free use of choice, viz. whether we are to 
 begin with believing what God has done on our behalf, 
 or should set forthwith about doing what we have to do 
 in order to make ourselves worthy of it (whereinsoever 
 this gift of the Divine Benignity may consist), then, ques- 
 tionless, the latter alternative must be adopted. 
 
 To assume the first pre-requisite of our salvation, viz. 
 a belief in vicarious satisfaction, is necessary notionally 
 only, L e. for a theoretical behoof, we cannot otherwise de- 
 picture to ourselves expurgation ; the latter element, how- 
 ever, is practically necessary, and purely moral. 'Tis cer- 
 tain we can never hope to become partakers in the bene- 
 fit of a foreign satisfactory merit, and so of eternal salva- 
 tion, unless we qualify ourselves for such a blessing by 
 unremittingly endeavouring to discharge all the offices of 
 humanity; the performance of which duties must spring 
 from our own effort, and not from any foreign influence 
 
154' OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 whcieby we arc entirely passive. Again, because the 
 ethical behest is unconditional, it follows of necessity that 
 mankind must lay down, as a ground-work from which all 
 faith must rise, this maxim, viz. that reformation of life 
 is the supreme condition, apart from which there can be 
 no room for any saving faith. 
 
 Ethic starts with a principle of acting ; revelation begins 
 with a principle of believing. Faith ecclesiastical, consi- 
 dered as historical, rightly begins with the latter prin- 
 ciple; but then, since it contains only the vehicle toward 
 a pure moral religion, it results that what in ethic, as a 
 practical system, is a first condition of incipiency, viz. the 
 principle of acting, must also constitute the real and true 
 commencement in the actual working of the other; while 
 the principle of knowing, i. e. of theoretical belief, can tend 
 only toward the confirmation and consummation of the 
 other. 
 
 We add this farther remark, tliat, agreeably to the one 
 principle, belief in vicai'ious satisfaction is represented to 
 mankind as his duty, while the belief in his ability to do 
 good works is because the strength is lent him from 
 above, reckoned to be of grace. The converse holds true 
 of the other principle. Good moral conduct is here a 
 duty absolutely imperative, and a condition indispensable 
 for all aspiring after the favour of God ; while the celes- 
 tial atonement is derived purely from the Divine Benigni- 
 ty, or GRACE. The adherents of the former method are not 
 unfrequently upbraided, and rightly too, with giving way 
 to a superstitious worshipping of the Deity, that is occa- 
 sionally seen to combine together a blame-worthy and re- 
 ligious life. Those who profess themselves favourable to 
 the other are rejuoachcd with leaning to an infidel natu- 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE, 155 
 
 ralism, in as much as, though their life is exemplary and 
 unexceptionable, they set themselves in an attitude of indif- 
 ference or antagonism to the claims of revjelation. These 
 epithets rather practically cut than theoretically untie the 
 Gordian knot, — a step that, in religious questions, is some- 
 times the only one that can be taken. Nevertheless, the 
 following remarks may serve as some slender contribu- 
 tion toward resolving the difficulty of this antithetic.§ 
 
 A living belief in the Son of God, considered as the pro- 
 totypon of that in humanity which alone is well-pleasing 
 to God, does in itself refer directly to an ethical idea, which 
 is at once the standard and spring of conduct; consequently 
 it is immaterial, in fact the same, whether I begin with this 
 RATIONAL belief in the Son, or with the behests of mo- 
 ral life ; contrariwise, a belief in this self-same archetype 
 in his phenomenon — as God-man — \s a posteriori and histo- 
 rical, and not by any means identic with the principle of 
 a moral life, which last is purely rational ; and it would 
 be quite a different affair to commence with a belief in 
 such historic advent, and thence deduce an amended course 
 
 § Translator's note — Kant mi<;bt have said something more. The 
 reader will find, in my Appendix to the version of the Ethics, an at- 
 tempted analysis of the particular frame or states of mind which the 
 Christian faith is fitted to awaken. With an addition I now make, viz. 
 that the renunciation of one's own righteousness, and substitution of vi- 
 carious righteousness in its stead, will produce the first state of will 
 there mentioned, or at least one very similar, and scarcely to be distin- 
 guished from it, — the reader will, I apprehend, find the obscurities of 
 this question vanish. It is almost superfluous to subjoin, that the total 
 abnegation of all claim to any personal moral worth is quite inconsistent 
 with, and indeed subversive of, Kant's Ethical Theory. Conf. Critik d. 
 Uitheilskraft, p. 123, with Beck's Commentary thereon, and Morals, § 11. 
 It is remarkable that Kant has omitted to re-asseit this in the text 
 above, where it Avould have been much more in place than in the C. d-. 
 Urtheilskraft. 
 
15() OF THE VKTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 of conduct. Thus far forth, then, would there be a re- 
 pugnancy betwixt those two doctrines ; and yet in tlic 
 phenomenon of the God-man, not that of him wliicli falls 
 under sense, but that in him which corresponds to the 
 ethical archetype latent in our own reason, is, properly 
 speaking, the object of saving and justifying faith; and 
 such a faith is quite identic with reason's principles of a 
 walk and conversation acceptable to God. Here, then, 
 there are not two antagonist principles, nor do we start 
 in contrary directions, by setting out from one or other 
 of them. In either case we deal with but one and the self- 
 same practical idea, regarding it, however, first as an 
 ideal archetype extant in the bosom of God, and emanat- 
 ing from the essential character of his person ; while, in 
 the other case, the ideal dwells with our own reason, — a 
 difference of aspect that becomes altogether evanescent, 
 so far forth as in both cases the ideal standard is deemed 
 and represented to be our regulating rule of life. Tlie 
 seeming antinomy thus disappears — the very same practi- 
 cal idea, when levelled at under two different lights, hav- 
 ing been mistaken for two diverse and conflicting prin- 
 ciples. Should it, however, be contended, that histori- 
 cally to believe in the actual advent and appearance of 
 this THEANTHROPic PERSON, is a condition precedent 
 of and indispensable to that faith which alone can jus- 
 tify and save ; then, indeed, most indisputably would 
 there be two quite contrary principles — the one a postiri- 
 ori, the other a priori, — and a true conflict of maxims 
 would arise, viz. whether we were to commence with 
 the experimental or the rational ; and this would farther 
 be an oppugnancy which no human reason would ever be 
 able to settle or adjust. The position, it is incumbent 
 
OVER THE EVIL PIIINC11»LE. 157 
 
 upon mankind to believe, that once upon a time there 
 was an individual, who, by his holiness and meritori- 
 ous life, satisfied, not only for himself, but also for all 
 others, how great soever might be the shortcomings and 
 gaps in the morality of their deportment, before we can 
 hope that we can, through a course of dutiful obedience 
 (which last, moreover, can only emanate from that faith as 
 its source), ultimately reach to the attainment of heavenly 
 beatitude — is a position most contrary to this other — man- 
 kind must strive, with all the might of a holy sentiment, 
 to lead a life acceptable to God, in order to expect that 
 his benignant care (to which our own reason bears imme- 
 diate witness) will consummate somehow or other the im- 
 perfections inevitably attaching to the deeds of the other- 
 wise honest-minded. To entertain the first belief is not 
 within every one's power, e. g. the ignorant and unletter- 
 ed can know nothing of it ; for, as to the existence of this 
 person, reason is altogether silent. History likewise 
 shows that all forms of religion have afforded room for 
 this antagonism of a twofold set of principles of faith. 
 They all delivered a doctrine of expiations of some sort or 
 other ; while mankind's original substratum for morality 
 failed not ever and anon to make its imprescriptible a 
 priori claim heard in the midst. But the vociferations of 
 the priesthood always drowned the plaint of the moralist ; 
 the former advanced with loud outcry to the government 
 to prevent the decline and fall of the ceremonial worship, 
 wliich had been instituted either to conciliate the gods of 
 the populace, or to avert mischances from the state; the 
 latter bemoaned the overthrow of public morals, ascribing 
 their decay to those very means of expurgation whereby 
 the priests enabled any one, with the utmost ease, to re- 
 
158 OF TIIR VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 gard himself as clarified from the greatest vices, and the 
 Deity as .atoned. And, forsooth, if an exhaustless fund is 
 provided for discharging all incurred and hitherto to be 
 contracted debts, upon which we need only draw inimi- 
 tably to regard ourselves as free and fully acquitted, 
 postponing meanwhile all firm resolutions of amendment 
 till we become assured that we are thus cleansed from 
 every stain of guilt; then is it indeed much to be feared 
 that no better results can naturally or morally flow from 
 such a creed. Again, were it lield that this belief did in 
 itself contain such an especial efficacy, or mystic or ma- 
 gic force, as, although merely historical so far as we can 
 see, to be able thoroughly to transform the whole inner 
 into a new man, provided only mankind yield himself up 
 to it, and to the feelings it is calculated to produce ; then 
 must such renewing faith be looked upon as a gift imme- 
 diately sent down from heaven, along with and under 
 cover of the historical belief — a supposition according to 
 which the ethic properties and destiny of mankind must 
 be, in their last resort, resolved into an unconditioned de- 
 cree of the Almighty, " who hath mercy on whom he ivill, 
 and whom he will he harden€th"\ — a statement which, taken 
 
 •}• Possibly this might be expounded as follows : None can certainly 
 undertake to say whence it comes about that one is good and another 
 bad (I speak of course comparatively), since a disposition to one or other 
 of those characters can be traced even in new-born infants ; sometimes 
 also strange contingencies of life, which nobody can foresee, are cast into 
 one's lot, and kick the wavering beam. Nor can we foretell how any one 
 may turn out : a judgment, therefore, on this dark and imjiervious matter 
 must be handed over to the Omniscient; and this judgment, considered 
 as passed before any individual's l)irth, is looked upon as a decree ap- 
 pointing to every one the part his destiny will one day call him to act. 
 The Creator's lonE-xNOwiNc of the Order of Sensible Phenomena, is 
 when we figure him to ourselves anthropopathically^ likewise a ronE-on- 
 nAiNTNo. But in a Supersensible Order of Things, where time is awant- 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 159 
 
 to the letter, is the saUo mortale of all human understand- 
 ing. 
 
 It is, consequently, a necessary result of our physical 
 and moral nature, which last is at once the support and 
 the interpreter of all religion, that religion become event- 
 ually defecated from tentative and experimental springs, 
 and gradually disengage itself from all statutes authenti- 
 cated by history, which served for a while, through the 
 intervention of faith ecclesiastical, provisionally to combine 
 mankind in an ethic association, until, the pure religion 
 of reason reigning, " God may he all in all." The swaddling 
 bands beneath which the embryo shot up to manhood must 
 be laid aside when the season of maturity is come. The 
 leading-strings of sacred traditions, together witli all ap- 
 pendages, the statutes and observances, which in their 
 time may have been of service, grow by degrees super- 
 fluous or even encumbrances to vigorous youth. As long 
 as mankind (the human race) was a child, he understood as a 
 child and thought as a child, and spake the doctrines which 
 traditionary legends had unawares put into his mouth ; 
 but now, when he is become a man, he pids away child- 
 ish things. The humiliating distinction betwixt Laic and 
 Clergy comes to an end, and from true freedom, equality 
 without anarchy arises, every one obeying the law now 
 no longer statutable, but prescribed by him to himself, 
 — which, just upon that very account, he regards as the 
 will of the Creator revealed to him by reason, conjoining 
 all under an invisible and common government in a Civi~ 
 
 iiig, and Laws of Freedom govern, it is no more than an all-seeing 
 KNOWLEDGE, not Serving to explain to us why one man acts thus and his 
 neighbour the reverse ; nor how such explanation, if got, could be brought 
 into harmony with the will's freedom. 
 
IGO OF THE VICIORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 tas Dei, scantily represented previously by the church vi- 
 sible. This transition is not to be accomplished by any 
 outward revolution, that by storm and impetuous violence 
 sweeps its hasty and rash course of innovation, where, after 
 all, flaws in the new constitution must be retained for cen- 
 turies, inasmuch as they cannot again be altered, at least 
 not without — what is always to be dreaded — a fresh revo- 
 lutionary convulsion. The ground leading toward such a 
 transition must be found in the principles of the ])ure re- 
 ligion of reason — a divine revelation, that has at all timos 
 been promulgated (though not historically) to our race. 
 An intention to make this transit, once adopted upon 
 mature deliberation, can be carried through the steady 
 progi-ession of gradual reform, into execution, so far fortli 
 as the amending of the church is a work of man : revo- 
 lutions intended to hasten the tardy steps of reform, de- 
 pend alone on Providence, neither can they be introduced 
 upon any uniform settled plan, nor can the public freedom 
 escape unhurt. 
 
 It may, however, be rightly asserted that tJie King- 
 dom of God has come, whenever the transition-principle 
 above explained has taken public root in any country, 
 and an observed approximation can be descried of church- 
 faith to a rational and universal religion, although its 
 actual arrival may be still deemed incomputably distant. 
 The aforesaid principle affords the ground tending to this 
 perfection, and does therefore, like a self-evolving and 
 ever-onward forth-fecundifying seed, comprehend all 
 that is one day to illuminate and govern the world. The 
 Fair and Good naturally sprouting from the soil of hu- 
 man nature, engage alike the affections and the under- 
 standing, and never fail to gain a general spread, wlien 
 
OVEll THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 161 
 
 once they have free course publicly to run. ImpedU 
 ments arising from civil and political causes, that seem 
 from time to time to stop and hinder their success, do in 
 truth rather serve to draw more closely — and even lend 
 an added super-exaltation to — the hearts of those united in 
 good : which good, once seen in an intellectual apprehen- 
 sion, can never afterwards fall altogether from the me- 
 mory.f 
 
 •|- The Church Creed may, without being either renounced 
 or impugned, be still made serviceable as a vehicle, while the 
 imagination of its belief's being a duty required for the due wor- 
 ship of God, is prevented from affecting our conception of the 
 pure and true moral religion proper. Thus a harmony of opi- 
 nion may be caused to prevail amid the adherents of the most 
 diverse statutable confessions, — a union of view that all teachers 
 and interpreters of ecclesiastic dogmas ought to labour to bring 
 about, until at length, by general consent (a uniformity result- 
 ing from our moral freedom, and brought about by the gradual 
 march and enlightenment of the understanding), the forms and 
 restraintsof a degrading extorted faith are exchanged for an ec- 
 clesiastical polity suited to the dignity of a moral religion. To 
 combine the unity of church-confessions with perfect religious 
 liberty, is a problem, to solve which we are urged alike by an 
 ethical interest, and by the idea objected to the mind by reason 
 of the necessary and exclusive oneness of a priori religion, al- 
 though that this last should ever obtain in any visible church, 
 seems more than human nature will allow us to hope for. This 
 idea, like all other representations of the absolute and uncondi- 
 tinned, is one to which nothing adequate can be found as a phe- 
 nomenon, and which yet, as a practically regulatory principle, has 
 all objective reality, and must ever prompt us to aim at this 
 grand end, — concord and uniformity in religious belief. The law- 
 yer stands in a somewhat similar position with his political idea 
 of Law Internatio7ial, so far forth as this last ought to be ac- 
 knowledged, upheld, and enforced as a universally coercive Laio 
 
162 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 Such is the imperceptible but continual struggle made 
 by the good principle to erect for itself, among the hu- 
 man race, an empire and dominion according to moral 
 laws, destined to subdue the opposing evil, and under its 
 victorious sway to give to the world perpetual peace. 
 
 Cosmopolitical. Of this, experience and observation cut short 
 our hopes. A bias appears entwined about our race (perhaps 
 intentionally) inducing each individual state, where it can, to 
 subjugate all adjoining, and erect a Universal Monarchy on their 
 ruins ; but this, after attaining a certain size, splinters itself 
 down into lesser states. In like manner, each church advances 
 a lofty claim to universality, but whenever it acquires a consi- 
 derably extended sway, principles of internal dissolution are 
 observed to distract it, after which it speedily falls asunder into 
 various sects. 
 
 The premature and therefore hurtful blending of diiferent 
 races (morality not having yet prepared the way for profitable 
 intercourse), — if I may be permitted to hazard a conjecture, and 
 assume in this point a design of Providence, — is chiefly prevent- 
 ed by these two mighty agents, oppugnancy of religions, and 
 diversity of tongues. 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 163 
 
 APOTOME II. 
 
 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE GRADUAL FOUNDING OF A 
 KINGDOM OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE ON EARTH. 
 
 Of religion, no Universal History can be written : for 
 when t})is word is understood in its strictest sense, and 
 not used to signify the different 7'eligions that may have 
 been prevalent on our globe, then it is obvious that sucli 
 religion can have no public outward states; for, being 
 founded on pure ethical science, and the a priori faith in 
 religion, wherein ethic issues, each individual can be con- 
 scious to himself alone, of the progression he may have 
 made in it. Ecclesiastical faith, therefore, it is only that 
 admits of being historically pourtrayed, when the various 
 mutations of its form are contrasted and compared with 
 the sole, pure, and unchanging, ethical belief. At that 
 point of time, when the former is made dependant on the 
 restrictive conditions of the latter, and the necessity of its 
 consent thei'ewith becomes publicly recognized, then does 
 the CHURCH UNIVERSAL begin to frame itself into an ethical 
 civitas Dei, and to advance toward perfection, under the 
 guidance of one sure and universally valid principle. It 
 may be conjectured beforehand, that this History can con- 
 tain nothing but a narrative of the perpetual conflicts be- 
 twixt a god or hero-worshipping faith, and that faith 
 which is morally-religious. To the historical belief man- 
 kind is ever prone to give preference unduly, although 
 the other — being alone competent to better our inner man 
 
IGt OF THE VICTOUY OF THE GOOD 
 
 — never lias renounced its title to pi'ecetlence, which also 
 it will certainly one day thoroughly vindicate and esta- 
 blish. 
 
 A coherent view of church-history can only be given 
 by limiting its extent to that quarter of the globe where 
 the church universal is about to develops this its latent 
 principle of uniformity, so far forth as the question touch- 
 ing the boundary of rational and ecclesiastical belief has 
 been openly propounded, and its final enodation repre- 
 sented as a matter of the utmost importance. The story 
 of diverse peoples, whose faiths are totally unconnected, 
 caa promise nothing for this behoof. Neither can the 
 history of two churches be unitively comprised under one 
 and the same head, merely because among the self-same 
 race a new belief may have arisen, widely differing from 
 the faith previously dominant, even although this last 
 should have aff"orded occasion and opportunity for the first 
 beginning of the other. For if the sequence of diff'erent 
 forms of belief is to be regarded as a modification of one 
 identic church, this dccursion must flow from one sole 
 principle : where this is not the case, the changes of 
 church- worship do not fall within the scope of the present 
 research. 
 
 Consistently, then, with our declared object, we can treat 
 only of that ecclesiastical polity which did, even from the 
 A'cry first, tend toward that objective unity of true reli- 
 gion universal to which it has ever since been constantly 
 approaching. This being the case, it is abundantly ob- 
 vious that JUDAISM is quite detached from that faith ec- 
 clesiastical, on whose histoiy we ai*e now to enter. There 
 obtains betwixt them no essential or inner principle of 
 connection, i. c. no incomplex unity of idea, although 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 165 
 
 tlie one was immediately antecedent, and supplied a pliy- 
 sical groundwork whence the church Christian ultimately 
 rose. 
 
 JuDAicAL Belief, in its pristine form, is nothing far- 
 ther than an aggregate of statutable laws, whereon rested 
 the political constitution. Any moral additamenta that 
 may either then or subsequently have been interjected, 
 are most absolutely foreign to Judaism as such. Judaism 
 strictly is no religion at all ; it is only an association of a 
 number of individuals, who, as they happened to belong 
 to a particular family, formed themselves into a common- 
 weal political, consequently not into a church. Far from 
 that, the community was intended to be temporal, inso- 
 much that, whenever torn by adverse circumstances, there 
 still remained the political belief, — which was of the very 
 essence of the constitution, — of one day restoring it by 
 the Messiah. Its being a theocracy (a visible aristocracy 
 of priests or leaders, who boasted of receiving their in- 
 structions immediately from God), — where the name of 
 God was revered as secular head, but quite apart from 
 any inward conscientious veneration, — never can convert 
 it into a religious constitution. 
 
 This is easily shown. 
 
 First. — All the commandments are such as admit of 
 being politically efforced as laws co-active ; for they re- 
 spect outward actions only. And though the Decalogue, 
 — even when we do not abstract from its public outward 
 promulgation, — is valid as a behest ethical in the eye of 
 reason ; still this decenary code challenges no deferential 
 obedience from conscience. It insists only on outward 
 conformity, and takes no note whatever of moral in- 
 FORMEDNEss of intent in observance, in which latter point 
 
166 OF THE VICTOUV OF THE GOOD 
 
 alone Cliristiaiiilv afterwards placed the very spirit and 
 genius of morality. Whence results, 
 
 Secondly. — Every sequent arising from fulfilling or 
 transgressing the edicts of the Pentateuch, i. e. the whole 
 system of rewards and punishments, is limited to this 
 life, and even then inconsistently with ethical ideas ; those 
 momentous sanctions descending like an entail to posteri- 
 ty, even to generations who could not actively have par- 
 ticipated in the guilt of their forefathers. PoliticaUy, this, 
 as a prudential mean of extorting sequacity, may be prac- 
 tised ; but, ethically, that equity and justice, on which every 
 moral community must be founded, and by which it must 
 be sustained, are utterly subverted and exploded. Again, 
 since, without belief in a future state, religion is altogether 
 incogitable, it follows that naked Judaism cannot, under 
 any aspect, be a religion, — a conclusion yet farther con- 
 firmed by the following remark, viz. doubtless the Jews 
 had, like every other nation, however savage, a belief in 
 future retribution, i. e. in a heaven and a hell ; for this 
 persuasion does, by dint of man's moral nature, obtrude 
 itself, of its own accord, on every one's thoughts, so that 
 we may be certain that the lawgiver of this race puk- 
 POSELY OMITTED all mention of a hereafter; and since, 
 although rej)resented to have been God himself, he deli- 
 berately excludes a future state from his code, that evin- 
 ces to a sufficiency, that the design was to institute, not an 
 ethical, but only a political common wealth, § where, to talk 
 
 tjTRAXSi.ATOu'sNoTi: — 111 tlie text Kant i)roiT«.(ls to unload the usual 
 couinion-placcs of fice-lliinkiuf,'. It is, however, curious Ic observe tliat 
 lie agrees with \Varl)urton in lioldinj^ that llio author of tlu- I'entateut'i 
 must of forctlioitglil pin ]wsr have excluded the ddclrine of a future stale 
 from his code ; but when he f^ocs on to argue that tiiere can be no rrii- 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 1G7 
 
 to the burghers of [iuuishments and rewards not to be ad- 
 ministered in this life, would have been a most inconse- 
 quential and injudicious proceeding ; and although it can- 
 not be questioned that the Jews may subsequently, each 
 one for himself, have framed a religious belief of some 
 kind or other, which he would fasten on and connect with 
 the articles of his statutable faith, still this superaddition 
 can belong in no sense to the original laws of Judaism. 
 
 gmi without a state of future retribution, I fear he contradicts not only 
 the bishop, but — what is far worse — himself. Referring to his chapter 
 on conscience, we have a definition of religion in general, where no 
 vista into futurity obtains. As this point is of moment, I make no 
 apology for quoting Warburton's reply to Lord Bolingbroke, who had 
 urged t/ic omission as a cardinal objection against the Divine Origin of 
 Judaism. The Doctor answers thus, p. 617, vol. vii. quarto ed. 1788. 
 " Till the coming of this first philosophy, Religion was understood 
 to rise on that wide basis, on which the fanatical Knave, Paul, had the 
 art to place it ; that ' He who cometh to God must believe that he is ; 
 and that he is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him.' For men 
 who supposed the infimte goodtiess and justice of God to be as demonstra- 
 ble as his infinite ^owe/- and wisdom, could not but conclude from his ?»o- 
 ral attributes that he rewarded, as well as from his natural attributes that 
 he created. 
 
 " On the more complex notion, therefore, of a moral governor, all 
 mankind supposed Religion to arise; while Naturalism, the Ape of 
 Religion, was seen to spring from the simpler notion of a physical pre- 
 server ; which, however, they were ready to distinguish, on the other 
 hand, from the Unnatiiralism (if one may so call it) of 7-ankt:r Atheism. 
 
 " Religion, therefore, stands, and must, I think, for ever stand, on 
 those two immoveable Principles of preserver and rewarder, in con- 
 junction. 
 
 " The length or shortness of human existence was not primarily in the 
 idea of religion, not even in the complete idea of it as delivered in St 
 Pau l's general definition. ' The Religionist,' says he, ' must believe 
 that God is, and that he rewards.' 
 
 " But when it came to be seen that he was not always a Rewarder here, 
 men concluded this life not to be the whole of their existence. And thus 
 a FUTURE state was brought into religion, and from thenceforth be- 
 came a necessary part of it." 
 
168 OF THIl VICTOIIY OF THE t'.OOV 
 
 Thirdly.— So remote was the Judaical era from being 
 the cpocli fitted for the advent of a church universal, that, 
 on the contrary, the Mosaic economy rather excluded 
 the rest of mankind from its communion ; while the 
 Jews, as a people specially chosen by Jeliovah for him- 
 self, entertained a sullen disregard or even hatred of the 
 whole human race generally, and were in turn cordially 
 detested. Here it must be noted, that the circumstance 
 has been greatly over-rated that they represented to them- 
 selves as the Governor of the world the only one unseen 
 God, of whom no sensible likeness was to be made. Most 
 other nations held pretty much the same belief, and only 
 by WORSHIPPING sundry inferior mighty under-gods did 
 they render themselves suspected of Polytheism.§ A God 
 Avho demands obedience to such laws solely as require no 
 amended moral sentiments, is not that Moral Being need- 
 ed by reason to support religion. In fact, religion would 
 thrive better, when various invisible subordinate deities 
 are pre-supposed — provided always tlie people understood, 
 that, however different their respective departments, do- 
 mains, and jurisdictions, all concurred in favouring with 
 assistance those only who, with the Avhole heart, followed 
 after virtue, — than when a single being is believed in, who 
 places the head and front of his religion in a mere mecha- 
 nic worship. 
 
 General church history, when treated systematically, 
 must consequently commence with the origin of Christi- 
 anity, which, as an entire abandonment of that Judaism 
 
 § " A circumstance plainly too frivolous to deserve attention — being 
 indeed nothinj^ more than this : wlietlier mankind t'nll down before a dog, a 
 cat, or a monkey, or whether he worship tiie Cod of the Universe." War- 
 burton \ipon Hume, p. 8(i0, vol. vii. quarto cd. 1788. Tn. 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 169 
 
 whence it sprang, was grounded on a quite new principle, 
 and effected a thorough revolution in points of faith. The 
 pains taken by the apostles to connect both together, by 
 painting the olden order of affairs as a preparation for the 
 new, prefiguring in types and shadows the events that had 
 just transpired, clearly shows, that in this they studied 
 singly the best means of introducing the true moral re- 
 ligion proper, in room of the old worship, to which their 
 countrymen were inveterately attached, without shocking 
 over-violently their prejudices. The disuse of the corpo- 
 ral mark whereby the race of Abraham were wont to dis- 
 tinguish themselves, guides to the inference, that the new 
 belief was detached not alone from the ancient, but from 
 all statutes whatsoever, and was intended to ensoul a re- 
 ligion valid for no one secluded race, but for the whole 
 habitable globe. 
 
 From Judaism went forth Christianity, but not from the 
 olden unmixed Mosaic constitutions. This polity had long 
 ere then fallen greatly into decay ; its precepts of worship 
 had insensibly become tinctured with various tenets of 
 school morality: the otherwise uncultivated nation having 
 from time to time imported much of Greek philosophy. 
 Some such changes as these had doubtless greatly modi- 
 fied their notions of obligation ; and, concurring with the 
 diminished power of the priesthood, the populace, then 
 smarting under the yoke of conquerors, who regarded in- 
 differently all foreign creeds, were prepared and ready to 
 revolt against the heavy pressure of rites and ceremonies 
 which neither they nor their forefathers could at any time 
 well bear : from such elements of explosion there sudden- 
 ly burst forth the new Christian faith. The teacher of the 
 gospel announced himself as an ambassador from heaven, 
 
170 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 accrediting his mission by the worthy declaration, that 
 the servile mercenary belief in Holidays, Rites, and Con- 
 fessions, was in itself vain; and that a moral faith alone, 
 which proved its reality by good deportment, could sanc- 
 tify and save. The narrative farther bears, that after hav- 
 ing, by his doctrine and sufferings, even up to the point 
 of an undeserved and meritorious death, f fullv exhibited 
 
 ■f- Wherewith the story of his public life concludes, at least so much 
 of it as can be held up as a fit example for general imitation. The more 
 secret events — the REsuRnEcxioN and ascension — witnessed only by 
 his immediate friends, cannot come within the sphere of a religion with- 
 in the bounds of reason, although, regarded as mere ideas — which may 
 be done without impugning their historical reality — they would suggest 
 to the reader the commencement of another life, and entrance into the 
 mansions and society of the blessed. Howbeit, understood literally, 
 just as they are congruous to our sensitive mode of perception, so much 
 the more do they encumber our intellectual belief in futurity, implying, 
 as they do, the materialism of all cosmical Intelligents whatsoever, and 
 guiding,/r*i, to \.he psychological notion, that the substratum of man- 
 kind's PERSONALITY is MATTER which can Continue identic only 
 while the body remains unchanged ; and, second, to the cosmological no- 
 tion of its spACiAi, presence in all worlds, the universe itself being, 
 agreeably to this principle, nothing but an extent of room. The Hypo- 
 thesis of the spiritualism of Intelligents is much more consonant to 
 reason. Here the body lies neglected in the dust, while the living 
 person still survives. The soul of the man, strijijjed of its sensuous ii\)- 
 pendages, can be wafted to the reahns of celestial beatitude, without be- 
 ing present locally in any part of space's illimitable expanse. Nor is this 
 the only advantage accruing to the mind from this latter theory. It 
 rids us of the difficulty of trying to figure to ourselves matter in cogi- 
 tation, and relieves us from any apprehension of casualties that niigiit 
 happen to our existence after death, were the permanency of our Being 
 
 dependent on the form and cohesion of certain particles of matter the 
 
 j>erdurahiliiy of a simple substance, arising immediately from the very 
 notion of its nature. Where the Immateriality of our Person is held, 
 reason is devoid of any interest to find itself throughout eternity co-a.s- 
 sociated with a body, whereof it never even here below was over fond, 
 and wliicli, iiow transformed and purified soever it may be, must (so long 
 as personality is made to depend on its identity) consist of tlic same ma- 
 
OVER THE EVII, PRINCIPLE. 171 
 
 and delineated in liis own person a transcript of that in 
 humanity which alone is well-pleasing to God, he return- 
 ed to the celestial mansions whence he came. Before 
 withdrawing finally from earth, he left with his friends 
 the declaration of his Last Will {as it tvere in a Nuncu- 
 pative Testament), and assured them, that by force of 
 the memory of his desert, doctrine, and example, " He 
 (the embodied ideal of a humanity acceptable to God) 
 would, though gone hence, remain ever with his disciples, 
 even to the end of the world." The account of this trans- 
 action, if designed to afford a historical bemef in the 
 extraction and the possibly supra-terrestrial dignity and 
 rank of his person, would no doubt need to be supported on 
 tlie buttress of miracles ; and although his moral, soul- 
 amending tenets can dispense with all such adminicles of 
 their truth, still the Sacred Volume has accompanied and 
 interwoven them with miracles and mysteries, whose very 
 notification is furthermore itself a miracle ; thus founding 
 a church-creed on the historic content, which last again 
 can only be authenticated by learning, as well in respect 
 of import as of interpretation. 
 
 Every belief that, as faith historical, is rested upon books, 
 demands a learned public for its surety, wliose contem- 
 porary writers, beyond any suspicion of lending them- 
 selves as accessories to the report, or of being in any se- 
 cret understanding with the first publishers of the narra- 
 tive, can check and control the rumours spread. The ethi- 
 
 terials which constitute the basis of its organization. Besides, wh\' the 
 dust and clay whereof our body is composed sliould be carried into hea- 
 ven — a region of the universe where probably totally diverse materials 
 are required for tlie existence and preservation of animated beings — is 
 altogether incomprehensible. 
 
1'72 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 cal faith of reason needs no sucli confirmation, but does, 
 on the contrary, give evidence to itself. Now altliough, 
 at the epocli of the religious revolution above alluded to, 
 the Roman people who then governed Palestine, and were 
 even scattered throughout Judaea, did really possess a lite- 
 rary republic, who, through an unintenupted series of 
 writers, have handed down to our own day the political 
 events affecting the policy and the constitution of the 
 realm ; still it is to be noted, that no writer of that day 
 makes mention either of the alleged miracles, nor yet of 
 the public change produced by them in tlie religious opi- 
 nions of their eastern neighbours. A generation had al- 
 ready expired before later inquirers proceeded to investi- 
 gate what their coiitemj)oraneous progenitors had omitted 
 to ascertain. Speculation was now set on foot touching the 
 essence and nature of this hitherto unknown faith, which 
 had not spread without considerable public commotion ; 
 but it does not appear that any inquiry was instituted 
 into its historical origin, in order, out of the Jewish an- 
 nals themselves, to detect its falsehood or confirm its 
 truth. Consequently, from the first beginning of Christi- 
 anity to the period when the church constituted a learned 
 body of its own, the narrative is obscure ; and we cannot 
 even tell what effect the doctrines of Christ had on the 
 morality of his followers — nor whether the first converts 
 were really morally superior to their neighbours, or just 
 people of the ordinary run. Ilowbeit, from the time 
 when the Christian Church first figures in the history of 
 the empire, it is past all doubt that the effects it produced 
 arc by no means of that beneficial character, justly ex- 
 pected from a moral religion: — they are certainly very far 
 from recommending it. 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 173 
 
 History teaches how mystical fanaticism gave birth to 
 swarms of monks and hermits, who, for the sake of some 
 fancied sanctity in celibacy, rendered themselves useless 
 to their species. Connected with this abuse, Avere hatch- 
 ed a brood of pretended miracles, that fettered the nations 
 with the shackles of a blind superstition ; while at the 
 same time a Tyrannical Hierarchy, uttering the dreadful 
 voice of Orthodoxy, obtruded itself on the free con- 
 science of mankind, and did, by the mouth of presumptu- 
 ous chosen interpreters, convert the whole Christian world 
 into the embittered partizans of conflicting articles of 
 faith — where, indeed, unless pure reason sit as umpire, no 
 general concord can ever be attained. In the East we 
 see the state making itself ridiculous by mixing itself con- 
 troversially up, with the statutes and brawls of faith sa- 
 cerdotal, instead of rather compelling churchmen to abide 
 within the due limits of their post, and preventing them 
 from doing that to which they always have betrayed a 
 strong bias, viz. exchanging the character of PrcBceptor 
 for that of Governor. While thus distracted, we observe 
 the Asiatic division of the empire become the booty of 
 enemies who ultimately abolish the dominant belief and 
 its disputes. In the West, faith erects its own throne. 
 The soi-disant Vicar of God shakes himself loose from, 
 and sets himself above, all worldly dominion, and allows 
 civil order, together with the sciences (which last alone 
 can truly watch and preserve a community), to fall in 
 ruins to the ground. Finally, we perceiv^e how both the 
 Oriental and Occidental States of Christendom, now far 
 gone in decay, did, — like those diseased plants and ani- 
 mals that attract loathsome vermin, to hasten and com- 
 plete their decline, — become over-run with barbarians. 
 
171- OF THK VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 The kings of tliose burbarous savages are iVom time to 
 time eliastised like children by the spiritual head, and 
 kept in awe by an enchanted wand, — the threat of excom- 
 munication. Now crusades lead them forth to distant 
 wars, that devastate remote regions of the globe, while 
 anon subjects are excited to revolt against their rulers, 
 and taught to hate their fellow Christians of a different 
 denomination. The root of this multiform turmoil flou- 
 rishes in the soil of despotically-commanding church- 
 faith, and would even now vegetate into the like excesses, 
 did not political interests and force suppress them. Who- 
 ever puts these things together, might well be justified in 
 exclaiming, — Tantum religio potiiit suadere malorum ; did 
 not the original intention most transparently shine through 
 the page of the original record, viz. that the design of the 
 Author of Christianity was to introduce a pure religious 
 faith, touching which there can be no contradictory opi- 
 nions or disputes ; whereas that whole hubbub, whereby 
 humanity has been and still is distracted, arose entireh 
 hence, that, owing to some perverse bias of our nature, 
 what was primarily intended as a mere introductory tran- 
 sit from antiquated faith historical, to religious faith pro- 
 per, became afterwards mistaken for, and incorporated 
 with, the foundation of religion universal. 
 
 Were any one now to ask, " What period durbuj the 
 whole known history of the church is to he esteemed the best f 
 the answer may confidently be, — " the present:" a prin- 
 ciple of true religious faith has now been publicly recog- 
 nised in Christianity, which, though long dormant, needs 
 now only to be roused and set free, in order to bring about a 
 continued approach to that all-containing church, which is 
 the visible likeness of the invisible kingdom of (iod on earth. 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 175 
 
 Reason at length, — in all moral and soul-amending mat- 
 ters, — withdrawn from the load of arbitrarily interpretahle 
 creeds, has now established these two maxims, which are in 
 this quarter of the globe universally, although not jiublicly, 
 received by all true reverers of religion. First, the prin- 
 ciple of an equitable reserve in speakingof all matters that 
 concern revelation. Seeing that no one can successfully im- 
 pugn the claim of the Scripture to be (even in respect to its 
 historic content) divine revelation, its practical part being 
 in all points most God-worthy; and seeing furthermore 
 that a religious community can hardly be established and 
 rendered permanent witliout some Holy Book and corre- 
 sponding church-creed founded thereon ; it does seem the 
 most prudent and reasonable course that can be pursued, 
 to continue to use this book, such as it is, as the text-book 
 of ecclesiastic education. Again, since no one will now-a- 
 days expect a new revelation ushered in by miraculous 
 credentials, it is obvious that the authority of the existing 
 volume ought not to be lessened by petulant or fastidious 
 cavils, — while at the same time {owing to this modest doubt ? 
 Tr.) belief in its contents is never to be represented as 
 a condition precedent of and indispensably requisite for 
 salvation. The second principle is, that since the Sacred 
 Narrative exists merely for the behoof of Faith Ecclesias- 
 tical, and never can or ought to have any influence on the 
 moral maxims we adopt — being subjected to the Church- 
 Creed, with the express view of more vividly delineating 
 the true and real object of all ethical associations (viz. a 
 virtue that presses after holiness), it results that every 
 interpretation of the Scripture must be entirely moral, 
 and that it never can be too strenuously inculcated, — the 
 unlettered betraying a constant bias to lapse into a mere- 
 
17(3 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 ly PASSIVE fjiitlijf — that true religion consists not in know- 
 ing and coutessing wluit God does, or may already have 
 done, for our salvation, but in ourselves doing what must 
 be done in order to make ourselves worthy of this benefit. 
 Indispensably incumbent pursuits and avoidances can be 
 those actions only that do in themselves possess an un- 
 doubted UNCONDITIONED WORTH, which can consequent- 
 ly alone render us acceptable to God, and whereof the 
 practical necessity is self-evident to every man, and fully 
 certain, quite apart from any Scripturary doctrines. The 
 Government is bound not to oppose these principles, nor to 
 lett nor hinder their striking root among the public. It is, 
 on the contrary, a most perilous, indeed audacious under- 
 taking, and one whereby heavy responsibility is incurred, 
 when the Regent tampers with the course of the Divine 
 Providence, and does by Test or Corporation Acts, passed 
 out of courtesy to the prevalent Church -Creed, tempt, ff 
 
 t One of the causes of this bias lies in the following supposed Pnnc:. 
 pie ofSecuritij, viz. that the faults of a religion in which I was born aiul 
 brought up, quite independently of my own option, and whereof tlie doi'- 
 trinal entierty I neither make nor mar, are faults not chargeable ui)on 
 me, but upon my teachers and other publicly installed instructors. This 
 is doubtless also the reason why, in general, a conversion from one form 
 of faith to another is not looked upon with much favour ; allhougii hero 
 another and a deeper ground may be assigned, viz. that, owing to tiie 
 uncertainty inwardly felt by every man, which of the Historical Reliefs 
 is the really true, whilst the Ethical Belief is always and everywhere the 
 same, people deem it a matter of unconcern what vehicle their neigh- 
 bours may think fit to prefer. 
 
 tt When governments pretend that conscience is not coerced, inasnuuli 
 as they only forbid the subject to state publicly his opinions on religion, 
 but allow him privately to think what he likes, one is provokiTd to 
 smile, and to say that no freedom is hereby conceded by the magistrate 
 to the people^to stop ihc current of their thouglits being beyond his 
 power. And yet this mental co-action, which cannot be wielded by the 
 temporal authorities, is actually put upon mankind by tiie clerical, who 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 177 
 
 by putting up to open auction, the conscientiousness of 
 the subject, offering or withholding civil offices and emo- 
 luments, the common right of all, according as individuals 
 accept or decline those tests which, at the very utmost, 
 can have no more than a learned probability in their fa- 
 vour. Even when no regard is had to the detriment 
 thence arising to the sacred cause of freedom, it is worse 
 than doubtful how far such a mode of dealing can procure 
 good citizens to any state. Who is he of those, thus 
 impeding the free development of God's originary ar- 
 rangements for the welfare of our race, that would vril- 
 lingly, — conscience being consulted, — stand surety and 
 
 are at all times ready to put an effective veto upon independent liberty 
 of cogitation, and oftentimes succeed in imposing even on tlie legislature 
 the shackles of this subtile yoke, barring them from so much as thinking 
 otherwise than they prescribe. Mankind's propensity to a mercenary 
 and worshipping religion, and bias to prefer it before the ethical worship 
 of the Deity, is so strong, that they are even prone to regard a ritual of 
 form and show as a matter not only of the utmost magnitude, but as alone 
 of sufficient efficacy to compensate for every other shortcoming ; and 
 hence render it most easy for those Soul-Preservers — the Guardians of 
 Orthodoxy— to instil into their flock so pious a dread of swerving, even 
 in the least, from the Articles of a Creed supported upon History, that 
 they never venture, even in thoiigJd, to allow a single doubt as to their 
 accuracy to gain footing in their minds, for this would be tantamount to 
 lending ear to the Evil One. True ; to rid one's self of this oppression, 
 a man has but so to will (a statement that cannot be made with regard 
 to the statutably-ordained confession of the country) ; but unfortunately 
 this volition is precisely what clerical co-action clogs with its drag. Bad 
 as is this forcing of conscience (which tempts to hypocrisy), it is not so 
 bad as suppressing outward liberty of belief. The warped understanding 
 gradually regains its elasticity as the man advances in moral insight, and 
 awakes consciously to freedom, whence alone true reverence for duty can 
 spring. But the other, which passes an interdict on the press in favour 
 of a given creed, puts an end to all voluntary efforts that might willingly 
 be made by the ethical communion of believers (in which last alone con- 
 sists the essential of a true church), and makes the church formally sub- 
 servient to political ordonnances. 
 
 M 
 
178 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 guarantee for all llic damage that he may, by such violent 
 invasion of free rights, entail upon his country. For al- 
 though the predestinated growth of good, pre-appointed 
 by our Creator, never can by any human power or stra- 
 tagem be altogether frustrated, still it may, by thus fore- 
 stalling mankind of a free market for opinion, be long 
 stunted, or even forced to retrograde. 
 
 Touching the superintending guidance of Providence, 
 THE HISTORY gocs on to represent the kingdom of hea- 
 ven no longer as for a while postponed, or merely ap- 
 proaching, but discloses to us its actual advent and ingress. 
 We may regard it as merely designed to animate the hope 
 and courage of those who strive to enter thereinto, when, 
 toward the close of the volume, we impinge upon a pro- 
 phecy where, dark as in Sybilline books, are foretold the 
 ultimate consummation of this grand cosmical revulsion, 
 and painted as come a visible kingdom of God on earth 
 (under the rule of his Vicar, — once more descended from 
 on high), together with the happiness enjoyed even here 
 under his sway. After the rebels who attempt a fresh 
 revolt are quelled and cast out, the Apocalypse an- 
 nounces their final doom, viz. to be hurled with their leader 
 to destruction; and the end of the world concludes 
 the scene. The Teacher of the Gospel, however, exhibited 
 to his disciples the Kingdom of God on Earth only in its 
 glorious, soul-exalting, moral phase ; i. e. he showed them 
 wherein that worthiness consisted whereby alone they 
 could become citizens in the divine state, and what they 
 had to do, not only to enter in themselves, but also to 
 work hand in hand with all others similarly minded, and 
 even if possible with the whole human r.icc. As for hap- 
 piness, — an inevitable object of mankind's wishes, — he 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 179 
 
 luld them beforehand not to count upon it during this 
 earthly life, but rather to be prepared to submit to the 
 greatest sacrifices and tribulations. Again, since a total 
 renunciation of physical enjoyment cannot well be ex- 
 pected from any living man, he qualified this pi-ospect by 
 saying, " Rejoice and he exceeding glad, for great ivill be 
 your reivard in heaven." The above-cited Appendix to the 
 History of the Church, containing the account of its fu- 
 ture and last destination, unfolds to view the church at 
 last triumphant; i.e. after having overcome all hin- 
 derances, crowned even while on earth with happiness. 
 The separating the good from the wicked (which, while 
 the church was advancing to perfection, would have been 
 inconsistent with the idea of its end, — the very mixture be- 
 ing needed, partly to test and whet the virtue of the one, and 
 partly by that bright example to draw over the others from 
 vice) now takes place, as the next effect of the completed 
 establishment and institution of the Divine State. The 
 last proof of its stability and fixity, viz. its victorious over- 
 throw of all outward foes, — where the state infernal is 
 finally dashed by the might of the state celestial, — is now 
 added ; this terrestrial order of things has drawn to a close, 
 and fled away, while " death, the last enemy (of the good), 
 being destroyed," either party enter upon an immortality, 
 of weal to the one — of woe to the other. The very form 
 of a church is now abolished, mankind, as Citizens of 
 Heaven, assuming that equal rank with the stadtholder 
 and vicarious head, to which he himself has raised them, 
 and God becomes cdl in cdl.f 
 
 •Y An expression that may be thus understood (when abstraction is 
 made from its mysterious import, which last, transcending the range of 
 all possible experience, belongs only to the sacred History of Hunia- 
 
180 OF THE VICTOUY OF THE GOOD 
 
 This Sketch of a History of Futurity, which is after all 
 no History, is a beautiful Ideal of a distant epoch, fore- 
 seen IN FAITH, that must one day take place, owing to 
 the introduction of the true religion universal. The pe- 
 riod of its actual arrival we do not yet descry ; but only 
 LOOK FORWARD TO the day, when, through a constant pro- 
 gression and approximation, the liighest good realizable on 
 earth may be attained ; a prospect in which there is no- 
 thing visionary or mystical, but where everything pro- 
 ceeds according to the principles and laws of our moral 
 nature. The Appearance of Antichrist — the Milennium — 
 the End of the World — may receive from Reason excel- 
 lent symbolic interpretations. The coming of the new 
 heavens and new earth may, just like the uncertain dis- 
 tance or nearness of death, be very easily understood to 
 express the necesssity of our being ever ready for so mo- 
 mentous a change; and does in reality, when we lend to 
 such symbol its intellectual meaning, invite us to regard 
 ourselves as at all times the called citizens of a divine ethi- 
 cal state. " Jflien, therefore, cometh the Kingdom of God f 
 — The Kingdom of God cometh not in visual form ; for be- 
 
 nity, and is therefore practically devoid of ethical purchate on the 
 will), viz. that the historical belief, which, being a church-creed, required 
 a sacred volume for conducting the education of our race (which volume, 
 however, obstructs the unity and universality of the church), will one 
 day become evanescent,* having finally merged in a universally self-evi- 
 dencing pure religious faith : to bring about which transit we ought most 
 sedulously to labour, by constantly developing a pure moral religion from 
 a concomitant vehicle that cannot as yet be altogether thrown asiile. 
 
 * [In the second edition Kant has ap])ended the following arf(/t7jrf«m to 
 the above Note — Tn.] Not exactly that it should cease (for, as a ve- 
 hicle, it may at all times be useful and necessary), but that possibly it 
 may do so ; a contemplation that denotes only the internal fixity of one's 
 pure moral faith. 
 
OVER THE EVIL I'RINCII'LE. 181 
 
 HOLD THE Kingdom of God is within you I [Luke, 
 xvii. V. 20, 21.) 
 
 Thus have we represented a kingdom of God on earth, not 
 according to a particular covenant — not a Messianic, but a mo- 
 ral kingdom, cognizable by pure reason. The former (Regnum 
 Divinum Pactitium) must draw its proofs from history, and is 
 subdivided into the Messianic kingdom, according to the old 
 and the new covenant. Here it is worthy of remark, that the 
 Jews, who lived under the elder dispensation, are still extant, 
 and, though scattered over the whole globe, still preserve their 
 ancient character ; while, on the contrary, nations professing 
 other creeds generally lost their primitive belief, and adopted the 
 current persuasion of the country they were in. To many this 
 phenomenon seems so extraiordinary, that they deem it impossi- 
 ble to have happened by any usual course of events, and one im- 
 mediately arranged by the Deity for certain ends aimed at by 
 Supreme Wisdom. But, on more mature consideration, we ob- 
 serve, that no race possessing a Written Religion {i. e. Sacred 
 Book) mixes itself with another (e. g. the Roman) that has 
 none. In truth, it rather gains pi-oselytes. And this is the rea- 
 son why the Jews, who, previous to their captivity in Babylon, 
 were prone to idolatry, abstained subsequently from this vice ; 
 since after that catastrophe their sacred books became, for the 
 first time, matter of general and public study. In exactly the 
 same way the Parsees, attached to the religion of Zoroaster, 
 preserve up to this very hour their written creed, notwithstand- 
 ing their dispersion, and are thus kept together by the Zenda- 
 vesta, which remains under the sacerdotal guardianship of the 
 Desturs. The Hindus, on the other hand, who, under the 
 name of Gypsies, are scattered far and wide, have been in great 
 measure swallowed up by their neighbours. Their native creed, at 
 
182 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 all evenls, has perished ; since, being Parias — the very dregs of 
 the people — they were interdicted from reading their Sacred 
 Volumes. Furthermore, what the Jews in themselves might 
 have been unable to accomplish was done to their hand, first 
 by the Christian, and then afterwards by the Mahometan reli- 
 gions, inasmuch as both sprouted from the old stock of Judaical 
 Belief, and presupposed an acquaintance with the Sacred Books 
 in question ; the force of which remark is not impaired by the 
 circumstance that Mahometanism declares the Jews to liave vi- 
 tiated their Writings. Should at any time the Jews, in the course 
 of their peregrinations, have lost all taste or skill in deciphering 
 the text of their earlier historj', they could always revive these 
 studies, and procure copies of their sacred documents from Chris- 
 tian communities, th;it had originally emanated from themselves. 
 Hence also it happens, that, in regions unknown to Christianity 
 and Mahometanism, no Jewish wanderers are to be met with, ex- 
 cept a few on the coast of Malabar, and a single colony or so in 
 China. The former are in constant commercial intercourse with 
 their brethren settled in Arabia ; and the very circumstance that 
 colonial vestiges of this race are to be met with among the Chi- 
 nese, places it past all doubt that they must have dispersed them- 
 selves, at some period or other, throughout that wealthy empire ; 
 and that the major part of them, finding no points of sympathy 
 or cognationship betwixt their own and the Chinese creed, be- 
 came ultimately oblivious of their peculiar tenets, and were swal- 
 lowed up and absorbed into the great indistinguishable mass 
 around them. Edifying remarks upon this national peculiarity 
 of the Abrahamides, and the long survival of their religion, while 
 they themselves are destitute of habitation, country, or interna- 
 tional connexion, are but of doubtful use, since either party draw 
 inferences consolatory to themselves. The genuine descendant 
 of Abraham sees, in this long preservative against extinction, a 
 promise on the part of benignant Providence that his race is yet 
 destined to the splendours of terrestrial rule ; Christians, again. 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 183 
 
 behold only the warning ruins of a state desolate, because it en- 
 deavoured to oppose itself to the advent and spread of the Hea- 
 venly Kingdom, which Providence still upholds in being, partly 
 to keep in memory the olden Messiah-Prophecies, and partly 
 to gibbet up in terror to the rest of the world the almost lifeless 
 carcass of the nation, as a dreadful instance of avenging justice ; 
 the Jews obstinately persisting in framing to themselves a poli- 
 tical instead of a moral notion of their foretold Messiah. 
 
 GENERAL SCHOLION. 
 
 In all religious forms of faith, we do, when searching 
 narrowly into their interior texture, invariably arrive at 
 somewhat mysterious, i. e. at something holy,^ which 
 may be indeed known by each single individual, but 
 cannot be made known by him to others, i. e. which does 
 not admit of being publicly communicated. As some- 
 thing HOLY, the OBJECT must be moral. It must conse- 
 quently fall under Reason, and be sufficiently cognisable 
 for every practical purpose, while, at the same time, as 
 somewhat hidden, it is impervious to any theory of our 
 speculative understanding : for were the case otherwise, 
 then it would be communicable to every one, and admit 
 of being imparted and made known, as well outwardly as 
 publicly. 
 
 Belief in what we consider to be a holy mystery, may 
 be regarded either as divinely infused, or as a purely- 
 rational belief. Unless constrained by some urgent 
 necessity to assume the former, we shall lay down the 
 maxim of abiding singly by the latter. Feelings are not 
 knowledge. Upon the same account they teach and indicate 
 
184. or THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 no mystery : consequently, since this last stands imme- 
 diately connected with reason, and is moreover incommu- 
 nicable generally, it results that each person must search 
 for this mystery (if perchance there be at all any such) 
 within the circuit and extent of his own Reason. 
 
 It is impossible to tell a priori, from an investigation of 
 the object, whether there be sacred mysteries or no. We 
 are thus constrained diligently to ransack our inner man, 
 in order to see whether, from the Subjective of our ethical 
 economy, some imperscrutable may not rise. Here we 
 most assuredly will not class the last grounds of mo- 
 rality along with the Holy Mysteries ; for the whole theory 
 of ethic is publicly communicable, although the supersen- 
 sible causality lying at the bottom of moral conduct is 
 neither known nor given. That alone, therefore, which 
 may be an object of possible, but incommunicable know- 
 ledge, will we regard as possessing the dread character 
 of the SACRO-SANCT. Upon this account — Freedoai, a 
 property revealed to mankind from the determinabilify 
 of his Will by the unconditionally commanding Law, is 
 no mystery whatever, for it admits of being publicly pro- 
 pounded and communicated to every one. But the last 
 unsearchable ground and root of this property is mysterious, 
 not being the object of any possible human inquest, and 
 so quite incommunicable. Again, just this very freedom 
 alone it is, that does, when transferred to the last object 
 of practical reason, viz. the realizing the idea of our chief 
 moral end, issue inevitably in those holy mysterics.f 
 
 t In like iiiaiuier, the cause of gravitation is unknown, so nuicli so, 
 lliat we are even able lo perceive, tliat it never can becon.e an object of 
 our kiiowkclge ; its very notion presupposing a first motive force as a 
 property uncouditionallv beloiijring lo matter. Notwitbstiuuling, tlieri^ 
 
OVER THE EVIL I'KTNCIPLE. 185 
 
 Seeing that mankind cannot by himself alone realize 
 that idea of the Sovereign and Supreme Good, which is 
 an inseparable concomitant of a pure and moral senti- 
 ment ; and since he can neither confer upon himself the 
 requisite share of physical happiness, nor cause to come 
 to pass a general union of mankind, aiming at this moral 
 end, and does nevertheless deem himself bound to endea- 
 vour after its accomplishment ; the consequence is, that 
 he finds himself impelled to believe in the co-operation 
 or disposing guidance of a Moral Governor of the World, 
 by whose superintending aid this last end may be put 
 within his reach. Here there opens to his mental gaze 
 the unveiled abysses of a mystery, viz. what — how much, 
 or if indeed anything at all, is to be ascribed to God, 
 as done by him for this behoof: for, in all the offices 
 of humanitv, we know oiilv what we ourselves have to 
 
 is here no mystery : for attraction can be made patent to every body, its 
 LAW being amply cognizable. When Newton represents the attraction of 
 gravitation as the phenomenon of the Divine Omnipresence, he does not 
 thereby attempt to explain it (the local presence of God in space involv- 
 ing a contradiction) : all he suggests to us is a Sublime Analogy, where, 
 by subjecting the physical system to an immaterial cause, all corporeal 
 entities are conjoined into one mundane whole. It is equally ditficult to 
 comprehend the last substratal ground combining all finite Intelligents 
 in an ethical state. All that we recognise is our duty to become mem- 
 bers of such a society ; although the possibility of fully realizing this 
 union, even when we obey the dictate of our reason, lies beyond the li- 
 mited insight we enjoy. There are in Nature arcana — and in politics 
 there are secrets which ought — not to be divulged ; but both may possi- 
 bly become known to us by observation and experience. Touching that 
 which it is every one's duty to know, no secret or mystery obtains : only 
 touching that which God alone can do, and to co-operate wherewith, 
 transcends our power and therefore also our duty, can there be a mys- 
 tery properly so called, viz. a Holy Mystery in Religion, ccncerning 
 which it seems enough for us to be aware that there is such a thing — to 
 comprehend it, might perhaps benefit us nothing. 
 
186 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 do, in order that we make ourselves worthy of this un- 
 known — at least incomprehensible — supply. 
 
 To fix and define this Idea of a Moral Governor of the 
 World, is a problem proposed to us by practical reason. 
 What we are concerned about knowing is not what the 
 Nature of God may be in itself; but what he is in refe- 
 rence to us as Moral Agents. For this latter behoof, we 
 must so cogitate and represent to ourselves the Divine 
 Nature, as to exhaust all those relations obtaining betwixt 
 our Idea of Him (as Unchangeable, Omniscient, Al- 
 mighty, &c.), and that entire perfection requisite on our 
 part for thoroughly executing his Will — and, without re- 
 garding him under this relative aspect, no fixt or pre- 
 cise moral notion of the Godhead can be framed. 
 
 Cogitated conformably to this practical necessity of our 
 reason, the True Catholic Religious Belief must be ex- 
 plained to be THE BELIEF IN GoD, FIRST, as the Omni- 
 potent Creator of Heaven and Earth, i. e. morally as a 
 Holy Lawgiver; secondly, as the Preserver of the 
 Human race, i. e. their Benignant Governor and Moral 
 Guardian ; THIRDLY, as the administrator of his own 
 Holy Laws, i. e. as a Righteous Judge. 
 
 Mystery here there is none, for this threefold belief 
 expresses merely the moral relations understood to obtain 
 betwixt God and the human race. Furthermore it objects 
 itself to every one's thoughts, and hence comes to be met 
 with in the religion of almost every nation above barba- 
 rism.f The same notion occurs in Constitutional Law, 
 
 t 111 the narrative, conve^'ed to us by the history, of what takes place 
 after death, tiie Judge of the World (strictly he who separates for him- 
 self, and takes under liis own dominion, tliosc who belong to the kingdom 
 of the Good I'rinciple) is said to be not God, but the Son of Man. This 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 187 
 
 where every commonwealth must be figured as swayed 
 by such a threefold order oi Authorities. Only, in the ethic 
 government contemplated, the sovereignty is purely 
 moral; whence the re-union of all three functions may 
 take place in the undivided person of the one ethical le- 
 gislator of our race ; whereas, in every civil polity, the le- 
 gislative, executive, and judicial functions, must be figur- 
 ed as wielded by three several juridical personages.* 
 
 seems to intimate, that human nature, inwardly conscious of its own in- 
 firmity, would choose such a judge to pass sentence — a favour which, 
 though granted, would not offend against justice — The Divine Judge of 
 his intelligent creation {the Holy Ghost) can only be cogitated as pro- 
 nouncing doom according to the utmost rigour of law, and giving force 
 to the sentence already passed upon us by conscience, when reckoning 
 up the account of our misdeeds. The reason is, that since we do not 
 know what deductions may equitably be allowed us on the score of hu- 
 man frailty, and are acquainted only with the amount of our deliberate 
 transgressions, we have no data whence to claim any mitigation of the 
 severity otherwise to be dealt out to us as our future lot. 
 
 * It is hardly possible to assign any cause why so many nations of an- 
 tiquity have concurred in holding this opinion, unless it spring from some 
 common principle in reason, namely, the idea of a government, whether 
 obtaining in a single country, or throughout the universe. Zoroaster's 
 creed has these three divine persons, Ormiizd, Mithra, and Ahriman. The 
 Hindus have Brahma, Vuhnii, and Siva (with this difference, however, 
 that the Persians figure to themselves the third Person, not merely as 
 causing those evils which are punishments, but as causing those very mo- 
 ral ills for which mankind are to suffer, whereas in Hindustan he merely 
 judges and hands over to vengeance). The Egyptians had PMd, 
 Kneph, and Neith, where, so far as we can collect their meaning through 
 the obscure glimmering of ancient history, the first person was an in- 
 corporeal spirit. Creator of the World ; the second was a principle 
 of sustaining and governing benignity ; the third a principle of wis- 
 dom limitary of the second, who therefore was conceived to administer a 
 judiciary function. The Goths revered Odin {Allfather), Freija (or 
 Freyer, kindness), and Thor (the punisher). Even the Jews seem, to- 
 ward the close of their polity, to have imbibed these notions ; for, when 
 the Pharisees accused Jesus of terming himself the Son of God, tlie 
 
188 OF THK VICTOKY OF THE GOOD 
 
 Again, since this belief, wliich adapts the moral rela- 
 tions obtaining betwixt the Supreme and his Subjects to 
 the uses of religion generally, purging our conceptions of 
 a hurtful anthropomorphism, and shaping them to a meet- 
 ness for the true morality of a People of God, was first em- 
 bodied in the Christian Creed, and was thus singly by it 
 publicly propounded to the world ; it results that such 
 promulgation may not unaptly be styled the revelation of 
 that which, through mankind's own fault, had hitherto 
 lain hidden from him as a mystery. 
 
 The Christian Faith teaches, FiRST, the Supreme law- 
 giver is, as such, not to be regarded by us as clement, and 
 consequently indulgent, to the frailty of our race, — nor 
 yet as despotic, imperiously commanding by dint of his 
 absolute and unconditioned right: neither are we to es- 
 teem his behest arbitrary, and unrelated to our notions of 
 morality, but as bearing directly upon the hallowing of 
 our nature : SECOjSrDLY, His Benignity is not to be placed 
 in an unqualified good-will toward his creatures; as if 
 he did not first test the morality of their sentiments, and 
 only then — in proportion to his well-pleasedness with 
 their conduct — supply their inability to become fully 
 commensurate to His Holiness : Thirdly, in the Ad- 
 ministration of His Justice, as he cannot, on the one hand, 
 be figured to be deprecatory by entreaty (for this were to 
 hold a contradiction) ; so neither can he, on the other, come 
 to judgment clothed with nothing but the holiness of 
 the Lawgiver (for then no man ever could be justified). 
 His Righteousness must rather be regarded as a principle 
 limiting and restraining the exorcise of His Benignity to 
 
 weight of the accusation seems not to be, that God was said to have a 
 Son, but that Christ individual!)' hiid claim to be this Son. 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 189 
 
 the prior condition of our conformity with his Holy- 
 Law, — so far forth as we Sons of Men are capable of 
 harmonizing with its demands. In a single word, we 
 have to serve God under a Triad of specifically- different 
 moral aspects, to indicate which, the term of a threefold 
 {not physical, but moral) personality of the same one 
 Being is no improper phrase. This symbol may fitly 
 suggest to us the whole of pure moral religion, which, 
 apart from this tripartite division, might easily degenerate 
 into a mere servile anthropomorphism, — mankind being 
 extremely prone to cogitate the Deity pretty much as 
 they do a temporal regent, where occasionally these three- 
 fold functions are not duly separated, but crudely mixed 
 up and confounded. 
 
 Should, however, this belief in a tri-une God be un- 
 derstood, not as a mere delineation of a practical idea, 
 but as setting forth what God in Himself is, then would 
 this be a mystery transcending all grasp of thought, quite 
 unsusceptible of being made level even by revelation to 
 our comprehension ; and would therefore be properly re- 
 presented as a surd and incogitable Mystery. To be- 
 lieve this tenet as one adding to a man's theoretic know- 
 ledge of the Divine Natui-e, can be nothing more than a 
 confession of an utterly unintelligible Church-Creed ; or, 
 should any think he understands it, then he professes an 
 anthropomorphous symbol of faith ecclesiastical ; neither 
 of which can benefit in the least his moral amendment. 
 That only, admitting of being practically understood and 
 comprehended, while, in a theoretical respect, surpassing 
 all our notions when we attempt to fix its nature as an 
 object, — is, in one sense, a Mystery, that, in another sense, 
 can be revealed. Of this latter kind is the first above- 
 
190 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 mentioned tri-form faith, wliicli serves as a groundwork, 
 whence three mysteries, revealed to us by our own reason, 
 take tlieir rise. 
 
 I. The mystery of our {effectual? Tii.) calling— to be- 
 come the citizens of an Ethical State. — We can only de- 
 picture to ourselves our unconditioned subjection to 
 the Divine Law, by regarding ourselves as God's crea- 
 tures ; exactly in the same way as God can only be re- 
 garded as the author of the laws of the material universe, 
 when he is regarded as having created all physical en- 
 tities. But reason cannot by any means comprehend how 
 any being should be so created as to be endowed, with the 
 free use of its powers, seeing that, according to every 
 Principle of Causation, no substance can have any in- 
 ternal ground of agency other than that implanted by its 
 originating cause ; but then its every action would be al- 
 ready fixed by this inward determinating ground, i. e. by 
 its foreign cause, and so the being itself would not be 
 free. Consequently a Holy Godlike Legislation, addressed to 
 Intelligents endowed with Spontaneity, is irreconcileable, 
 upon any ground of our reason, with the notion of their 
 Creation. We are consequently to be regardecl as Free 
 Agents already extant, called, not by any natural depen- 
 dency arising from our creation, but called, by a purely 
 moral co-action, agreeably to Laws of Freedom — to a citi- 
 zenship in the Divine State. Our vocation is consequent- 
 ly, morally, quite clear; but, speculatively, the possibility 
 of such a call is an impenetrable mystery. 
 
 IL The Mystery of Redemption. — Mankind is corrupt, 
 and far from tallying with God's holy law; nevertheless, 
 if the divine benignity has called him into being, and in- 
 vited liim to become a member of the heavenly kingdom, 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 191 
 
 there must be some mean patent to God's Supreme Wis- 
 dom, for supplying, out of the fuhiess of His own holi- 
 ness, the want of our requisite qualifications. But then 
 all the moral good or evil that can attach to mankind 
 must necessarily be brought forth by his own spontaneity, 
 and consequently no moral good can flow to him from an- 
 other, but must, if it is to be imputed, emanate from him- 
 self. So far, therefore, as all human insight reaches, no 
 one can, by any surplus of desert, come vicariously in our 
 room — at least, even were we to concede the possibility 
 of such a substitution, still it is only, for a moral practical 
 behoof, an indispensable assumption ; theoretically, it is a 
 mystery quite unfathomable by any stretch of reason. 
 
 III. The Mystery of Election. — Even after vicarious 
 satisfaction has been admitted as possible : still a believing 
 acceptance of it is a determination of will toward good, 
 presupposing in the man a cast of thinking well-pleasing 
 to God, which, however, owing to the depraved bias of 
 his heart, he cannot have produced in himself. Now, that 
 celestial grace should bring about this effect within, not 
 according to any woiks of righteousness that the man has 
 done, but according to an unconditioned decree, adjudg- 
 ing this mighty aid to one, and withholding it from an- 
 other, — thus foredooming one portion of our race to bliss, 
 and the remainder to eternal reprobation, — is a hypothetical 
 idea of a government, conveying to us no notion at all of 
 Divine Justice; but one that would require, in the last re- 
 sort, to be referred to the Standard of a Wisdom, where- 
 of the Rule, is for us a most inexplicable mystery. 
 
 Concerning those mysteries which deeply pervade the 
 moral history of each man's life, viz. whence it happens 
 that moral good and moral evil are to be met with in the 
 
192 OF THE VICTORY OV THE GOOD 
 
 world, — how the one can be developed from the other, — 
 and how mankind's re-establishment in good can be brought 
 about, — why, while this redintegration of character obtains 
 in some, others remain unchanged ; — touching, I say, 
 those various mysteries, God has revealed nothing, and 
 can in fact grant us no such revelation ; for we could not 
 UNDERSTAND it.* With equal reason might we attempt 
 to EXPLAIN, by help of the idea Freedom, the phases of the 
 human conduct. God's will as to this last is, doubtless, 
 amply revealed to us by the moral law ; but what those 
 LAST GROUNDS are, by dint whei'eof a free act is in time 
 performed or avoided, is a point wrapped in uttermost 
 obscurity. Nor can any sifting research, instituted by 
 man, bring light into these tortuous windings of his his- 
 tory, which derives its double source at once from freedom 
 and from the enchainment of causes and effects.f The 
 objective rule of behaviour is {by Beason and in the Scrip- 
 
 * People not unfrequently demand that tyros in religion should as- 
 sent to mysteries, because, being incomprehensible, we are no more en- 
 titled to deny them, than to deny the generative power possessed bv 
 organized beings — a thing likewise comprehended by none — but whidi 
 must still be admitted, although an arcanum that must ever remain hid- 
 den. Howbeit we thoroughly understand what we mean when we 
 talk of the growth and generation of plants and animals ; and we pos- 
 sess an a posteriori notion of those objects, and are perfectly aware that tlicv 
 involve no contradiction. Of every mystery offered to our belief, we may 
 insist upon understanding what it means : which is not the case, so long 
 as we merely understand each individual word of the formula under 
 which the mystery is couched — That God can convey to us a mysterious 
 knowledge by inspiration, is incogitable ; for our understanding is by its 
 nature unfitted for such a deposite. 
 
 -|- Hence, what freedom is, is in a practical point of view thoroughly 
 understood ; but in a theoretical, the physical constitution of such a 
 causality cannot be thought of, without involving ourselves in contra- 
 dictions. 
 
OVER THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 193 
 
 ture) sufficiently revealed ; and this revelation is, more- 
 over, intelligible to the whole world. 
 
 That we, mankind, are by the moral law called to a 
 good life ; that, by the inextinguishable reverence felt to- 
 ward this behest, and engraven upon our soul, we bear 
 within a promise, leading us to trust this good spirit, and 
 to hope that somehow or other we may satisfy his de- 
 mand ; lastly, tliat, from combining this expectation with 
 the stern edict, we must constantly examine ourselves, as 
 were we legally summoned to account, — these are points 
 alike strenuously inculcated by Reason, Heart, and Con- 
 science. It were intemperate to seek for farther manifes- 
 tations ; and were any farther disclosures to take place, 
 they could not be regarded as addressed to the general 
 needs and wants of human nature. 
 
 Although that Grand Cardinal Mystery, comprising all 
 the rest under its general formula, is made by each man's 
 own reason thoroughly comprehensible, as a practically ne- 
 cessary idea of religion, it may, nevertheless, be said that 
 it was then first revealed, as the moral groundwork of re- 
 ligion, when PUBLICLY taught, and made the characteristic 
 of an epoch in religion altogether new. A solemn for- 
 mulary is usually couched in peculiar, sometimes mys- 
 tic phraseology, not understood by every one, and inter- 
 preted only to those, who compose a particular guild or 
 union. Out of deference, it is seldom or never used, save 
 when some public solemnity is transacted, such as the re- 
 ception of a new member into the select company. The 
 highest grade of the moral perfection of Finite Creatures 
 — at all times imattainable by man — is the love of the 
 LAW — conformably to this idea, this would become a prin- 
 ciple of religious faith, " God is Love." In him raan- 
 
 N 
 
194 OF THE VICTORY OF THE GOOD 
 
 kind may revere the loving Father (his love being that 
 of moral complacency in creatures, so far forth as they 
 conform themselves to his Holy Law) ; farther, in him they 
 can venerate, in so far as he exhibits himself agreeably to 
 the idea of his all-pi-eserving character — the beloved and 
 self-begotten archetype of humanity — the Son ; and last- 
 ly, inasmuch as he tempers his complacency by regard 
 had to mankind's coincidence with the conditions limitary 
 of that complacential love, and does thereby demonstrate 
 that his Benignity is sustained by Wisdom, they may far- 
 ther revere in him the Holy Spirit.* Thus they may 
 
 * This spirit, whereby Love toward God as our Benignant Sa- 
 viour, making us partakers of his eternal bliss, is combined with 
 awe felt toward him as lawgiver, is the true Judge of Mankind 
 before his own conscience. Judgment may be pronounced in a 
 twofold character. Sentence may pass as to the presence or ab- 
 sence of good-desert, and it may also decide upon innocence or 
 guilt. The Godhead, regarded as love {in the Son), passes sen- 
 tence upon mankind so far as to determine whether, beyond what 
 is of mere debt, any ulterior merit can accrue to them. Here 
 the verdict is worthy or unworthy. Those he selects as his 
 own, to whom such a supplementary good can be adjudged. The 
 rest are sent empty away. The righteous judgment pronoun- 
 ced according to the utmost rigour of law (by the judge pro- 
 perly so termed — the Holy Ghost), aifects those to whom no 
 foreign merit has been imputed. The sentence here is guilty 
 or not guilty, i. e. condemnation or acquittal. Judging signi- 
 fies, in the former case, separating the deserving from the un- 
 deserving, who both strive for the prize of eternal bliss. By the 
 term merit or desert, is not meant a surplus of morality super- 
 erogatory of what the law commands (for no accumulated dis- 
 charge of duties can ever pass beyond what is of mere debt) ; 
 all that is meant is, that when mankind are compared together, 
 some are, by their moral sentiments, more deserving than others. 
 Worthiness has, consequently, no more than a negative im- 
 
OVEH THE EVIL PRINCIPLE. 19o 
 
 INVOKE him, not in his threefold capacity (which would 
 import a difference of entities, whereas the object is but 
 one and single), although they may do so in the name of 
 that ideal which is revered and loved by God himself be- 
 
 port, viz. not unworthy to receive a benefit from God's benig- 
 nity. The Judge in his former capacity acts as Umpire betwixt 
 two persons or parties contending for a prize ; but in the second 
 capacity, where he really does administer a judiciary function, 
 the sentence is passed upon one and the same individual, tried at 
 the bar of heaven and his own conscience, and is final either in 
 favour of the prosecution or defence. Now, on the hypothesis 
 that all mankind are laden with the guilt of sin, and that some 
 of them are notwithstanding susceptible of an imputed desert, 
 then we have a case, admitting a sentence from that Judge who 
 is love ; which failing, the suppliant's application is rejected as 
 incompetent before this tribunal. Thus he falls into the hands 
 of Justice, where sentence of condemnation must inevitably fol- 
 low. It is thus that, in my opinion, the following seemingly con- 
 trary passages may be reconciled : " The Son will come again to 
 judge the quick o.nd the dead ;" whereas elsewhere we read, John, 
 iii. 17, " God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the ivorld, 
 but that the world through him might he saved ;' while both are like- 
 wise brought into harmony with what immediately follows (verse 
 18), " He that believeth not on him is condemned already,'' viz. by 
 that Spirit, of whom it is written, that he will reprove the world 
 because of sin and of righteousness. The anxious solicitude with 
 which such distinctions are made in the fields of pure reason, in 
 whose behalf alone they are here instituted, may seem to some 
 useless and irksome subtilty ; and so indeed would it be, were 
 they intended for any analysis or inquiry into the Divine Nature. 
 But since mankind are always prone, in matters of religion, to 
 appeal, on account of their transgressions, to the divine benignity, 
 and yet perceive that his justice cannotbebaffled or circumvented, 
 they frame to themselves the notion of a benignant judge. Again, 
 since this notion of a benignant judge is a contradiction, it is 
 quite obvious that the opinions commonly current respecting 
 
196 OF THE VICTORY, &C. 
 
 yond everything ; to come into moral union with which 
 ideal is at once our wish and duty. This theorem of a 
 threefold aspect of the divine nature is merely a Classicvil 
 Formula in Faith Ecclesiastical, serving as a criterion 
 whereby to distinguish one given Church-Creed from other 
 forms of belief derived from different historic sources. 
 Few men are able to frame to themselves a just and de- 
 finite conception of the meaning and import of this for- 
 mula (for it lies open to many a misapprehension) ; and 
 its investigation would seem rather to devolve on those 
 Teachers who, as philosophical or learned expounders of 
 Holy Writ, endeavour to settle the boundary and line of 
 demarcation obtaining betwixt their respective faculties, 
 in order to arrive at a mutual good understanding touching 
 its true import and intendment. In these ancient formu- 
 lae some things are past the range of ordinary comprehen- 
 sion, and are no longer adapted to the necessities of the 
 present time : while an empty belief in their letter tends 
 rather to corrupt than better a cast of thinkiug truly reli- 
 gious. 
 
 this practical concernment of humanity must be extremely fluc- 
 tuating and incoherent; wherefore, to correct and accurately 
 define them, must be of the last possible moment and practical 
 importance. 
 
HARMONY AND IDENTITY 
 
 NOTICES OF REASON WITH THOSE OF 
 ANY POSSIBLE REVELATION, 
 
 SHEWN IN FOUR BOOKS. 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE AYORSHIP OF GOD UNDER 
 THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE VICTRESS; 
 
 OF RELIGION AND ECCLESIASTICAL DESPOTISM. 
 
I^OOK IV. 
 
 OF RELIGION AND PRIESTDOM. 
 
 EXORDIUM. 
 
 The Good Principle's sovereignty has then begun, and 
 the advent of tlie kingdom of God is at hand, whenever the 
 principles of its constitution have been set publicly ahr ouch; 
 for, in the luorld intelligential, that has already come, 
 whereof the efficient causes have generally taken root, al- 
 though their full development as phenomena in the world 
 sensible may yet be infinitely remote. We saw, in the 
 former book, that to become members of an ethical society, 
 was a duty of its own kind {officium sui getieris). It like- 
 wise appeared, that, although when each individual exe- 
 cuted his own private duty, and an accidental association 
 of some men in good might then arise, without any spe- 
 cial ecclesiastic institution ; still the universal concur- 
 rence of all mankind could not be expected, unless the 
 erection and spreading of an ethical commonweal were 
 systematically gone about as a particular work; where, 
 combined under moral laws, the conjunct force and virtue 
 of our species is brought to bear against the Invasions of 
 the evil principle, — apart from which joint collectedness 
 
200 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 of opposition, mankind even do, by mutually tempting 
 one another, render themselves the ready tools and in- 
 struments of their inward enemy. This ethic state, as 
 A KINGDOM OF GOD, could Only be founded on religion. 
 Religion, again, could subsist publicly (which publicity is 
 of the very essence of every commonwealth) only when 
 the moral community framed itself into the sensible shape 
 of a CHURCH : to institute which church, was consequent- 
 ly represented as a duty incumbent upon our race, and as 
 one that, although handed over to our own convenience, 
 could most justly be imperatively demanded from us. 
 
 But then, to found or set a church agoing, so far forth 
 as it is a commonwealth regulated upon Laws of Religion, 
 is a proposal that would seem to require more wisdom, 
 depth of insight, and morality of intention, than is either 
 to be met with or expected among our race, especially 
 when it is considered, that the very morality aimed at, in 
 such an institution, would seem to be of necessity pre- 
 supposed as already extant in those who are to become its 
 members. In effect, it is not a little incongiuous to say, 
 that MEN ought to FOUND a kingdom of God — (as were 
 they about to found the dynasty of an earthly potentate)— 
 God himself must be the author and founder of his own 
 kingdom. But, since we do not know what is imme- 
 diately done by the Almighty, in order to exhibit, in the 
 way of real fact and event, the idea of his kingdom, where- 
 in to become subjects and citizens, we find within a mo- 
 ral call and destination, and are fully cognizant and aware 
 of that only which it behoves us to do, in order to render 
 ourselves thereof the fit members, it results that this idea 
 — be it current, whether by Reason or by the Scripture — 
 must serve as the pattern of our combination ccclesiasti- 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 201 
 
 cal : where, no doubt, should the latter alternative be re- 
 ceived, God himself is the Founder and Originator of the 
 Constitution : we, mankind, however, as the free deni- 
 zens and called representatives of the state, are, under 
 any circumstances, authors of its organization. Those, 
 again, who manage the public interests of the society, con- 
 formably to that its organized framework, do, as minis- 
 ters of the chui'ch, compose the administration : the 
 rest of the ethic confederation, who are merely subject to 
 the laws of the federal league, constitute the congrega- 
 tion. 
 
 A public religious belief, consisting singly of the pure 
 religion of reason, admits nothing more than the bare 
 idea of a church (viz. invisible) : the visible church, found- 
 ed upon tradition, alone it is, that can require or receive 
 any organization from man. The worship under the do- 
 minion of the good principle, in the church invisible, 
 cannot be regarded as a church-service ; and the pure a 
 priori religion has no installed ministers as the officials 
 of an ethical commonwealth, — each member receiving im- 
 mediately for himself the behest of the Supreme Law- 
 giver. Again, since we are at all times in the service of 
 God when we unremittingly discharge all our duties (fit- 
 ly regarded as imposed upon us by Divine Command- 
 ment), it follows that pure rational religion has for 
 its ministers every honest-minded person, though not 
 officially ; upon which latter account, they cannot be 
 deemed the officiating servants of a church (viz. of one 
 visible, touching which alone question is here made). 
 Furthermore, since any church rising upon statutable 
 laws can only designate itself the true church, so far 
 forth as it contains within, the germ of a principle indu- 
 
S02 OF THE TUUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 cing it perpetually to approach the creed taught by pure 
 reason (this latter belief, being that in any other, alone 
 constituting thereof, the practical religion), and in due 
 course of time finally to depart from faith ecclesiasti- 
 cal ; we may hold that the true service {cultiis) of the 
 church, upreared upon such laws and officers, will con- 
 sist herein, that its ministers shall so adjust their doc- 
 trines and ritual as to endeavour to bring about that last 
 end, viz. the dispensing with faith historical, as super- 
 fluous, and resolving it into the pure faith intelligential, 
 now at length become generally public. Should, on the 
 contrary, t]ie ecclesiastic officers of a church not only 
 entirely overlook this end, but even denounce the prin- 
 ciple of aiming and aspiring after it, as damnable, declar- 
 ing, on the contrary, the historical and statutary part of 
 tlie church creed to be the alone saving, then would they, 
 with all justice, be accused of supporting a spurious ser- 
 vice, in the ethical republic, combined under the govern- 
 ment of the good principle. By a spurious service {false 
 worship), is understood that delusion, whereby such ac- 
 tions are proffered to another, as, instead of forwarding, 
 actually frustrate his views. In a commonwealth, this 
 perversion takes place when what is only a mean toward 
 satisfying the Will of a Superior, displaces, and is thrust 
 into the room of, that which makes us at once and di- 
 rectly his acceptable servants — a delusion whereby tlie 
 ends of the government are defeated. 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 203 
 
 APOTOME I. 
 
 OF THE RELIGIOUS WORSHIP OF THE DEITY. 
 
 Religion, subjectively considered, is the ackno^vledg- 
 ment and recognition of all our duties as if they were 
 divine commaudments.f When I must first of all be told 
 
 ■f This definition serves as a guard against erroneous significations, 
 sometimes put upon the word religion : First, Touching what we therein 
 theoretically profess to acknowledge, nothing whatever is asserted, not 
 even the existence of God. In fact, our insight into supersensible mat- 
 ters is so scanty, that confidently to assert such a position, might in 
 many cases be little short of hypocrisy. Our definition contains nothing 
 more than that plausible hypothesis problematically assumed by our un- 
 derstanding when speculating upon the probable first cause of all things, 
 which hypothesis, however, with respect to that chief end whitherward 
 our legislative reason directs our aim, becomes a free, assertive, practical 
 belief, promising the realization of that ultimate object. This practical 
 faith demandsnomore than the idea of a god, — aconception upon which 
 every morally serious mind must inevitably impinge ; but without pre- 
 tending that it can, by an^' theoretic speculation, ascertain that any ob- 
 jective reality corresponds to this idea. For such an end as can be re- 
 ])resented as imperative upon all mankind, even the minimum of infor- 
 mation ought to be subjectively sufficient, i. c. the possibility that there 
 may be a God, is enough. Second, By this definition of religion in gcnere, 
 we guard against the equally erroneous conception, that by religion is 
 meant an aggregate of certain fixed duties to be rendered toward God, 
 and thus enter our caveat against the imagination that there are offices 
 of divine worship, which last, however, are not unfrequently supposed, 
 and that, too, of such efficiency, as to supply what is wanting in our dis- 
 charge of the everyday offices of humanity. In the true Catholic reli- 
 gion there are no special duties toward God, for God can receive nothing 
 from us, and we cannot act upon him, nor yet for him. Were the awe 
 owed him to be called such a specially incumbent and indebted feeling, 
 then what is overlooked in this assertion is, that this mood or frame of 
 the sensory is not any particular religious act, but is that religious and 
 
204 OF THE TRUE AKD FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 that any given edict is a divine commandment, before I 
 can recognise and acknowledge it to be ray duty ; then is 
 such religious behest revealed, or, at least, one standing 
 in need of a revelation to authenticate it. On the con- 
 trary, that religion where I first know what are the in- 
 cumbent offices of humanity, and then, upon that account 
 alone, admit them to be divine behests, is the religion of 
 nature. Whoso declares Natural Religion alone to be 
 morally indispensable, i. e. duty, is a rationalist (in 
 matters of faith). Does he, moreover, deny the actuality 
 of any preternatural divine revelation, then he is a natu- 
 ralist. Should he, however, admit a revelation as pos- 
 sible, but contend that an acquaintance with, and accep- 
 tance of, it as real, are no necessary constituent elements 
 of religion, then might he be appropriately called a pure 
 bationalist. But were he to maintain that a belief in 
 such revelation constituted a necessary part of religion 
 universal, then ought he to be styled a pure supeenatu- 
 ralist in affiiirs of faith. 
 
 Rationalists must, by their very assumption of such a 
 name, confine themselves within the bounds of all human 
 insight. Hence they cannot dogmatize as do the natu- 
 
 reverential cast of mind that ought to pervade the observance of every 
 duty. The saying, "■'God ought to be obeyed rather than man," merely 
 implies, that when any human law collides with duty, the former must 
 give place to the latter. But were this maxim to be so interpreted as 
 to make points of obedience, where God not man is to be obeyed, those 
 commandments which a church gives out as laws of God, then would 
 such a dictum scarcely differ from the notorious church-in-danger outcry, 
 by which hypocritical and despotic churchmen usually excite the subject 
 to seditious outbreaks against his government. Allowed actions, when 
 commanded by the civil magistrate, become by his ordinance undoubt- 
 ed duties. But that any luit action has been enjoined by God in a spe- 
 cial revelation, is in the highest degree uncertain. 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 205 
 
 ralists, nor dispute either the internal possibility of a re- 
 velation generally, nor yet the necessity of a revelation 
 regarded as a divine mean toward the introduction of true 
 religion. Upon these points, no one can by any ransack- 
 ing of his understanding expect to expiscate anything. 
 The controversy must therefore turn on the conflicting 
 positions of the pure rationalists and supernaturalists, and 
 will afi'ect those particulars deemed by the one party ne- 
 cessarily pertaining to the true and alone religion, but 
 held by the other accidental concomitants of a doctrine, 
 complete and sufficient to all moral and religious ends 
 without them. 
 
 From the first origin and inward ground of the possi- 
 bility of RELIGION — giving birth to its division into natu- 
 ral and revealed — we may totally abstract ; and consider 
 that its property singly, whereby it is fitted for public 
 outward communication. Contemplated under this light, 
 Religion is either natural — whereof, once extant, every 
 one can become convinced by his own reason — or else a 
 LEARNED religion, whereof we can convince others exclu- 
 sively by learning, in and by which last they must be 
 led. This distinction is of extreme importance ; for, from 
 the bare original of a religion, nothing whatever can be 
 inferred as to its fitness or unfitness for being the univer- 
 sal religion of our race ; although such, an inference can 
 very easily be drawn from the characteristic of its being 
 communicable only locally and partially, or communi- 
 cable universally, which latter property is of the very es- 
 sence of a religion obligatory upon all mankind. 
 
 Agreeably to what has just been laid down, although a 
 religion be natural, it may notwithstanding have more- 
 over been revealed, always provided the revelation exhi- 
 
206 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 bit nothing that mankind could not, and indeed should 
 not, have arrived at by the natural exercise of liis own 
 powers, although very possibly he might not so soon and 
 in such wide extent have attained this knowledge. To 
 promulgate religion, by a revelation locally and specially 
 given at a certain time, may consequently have been a 
 wise and salutary measure; and yet when the religion 
 thus ushered in has fairly struck root and become public- 
 ly known, conviction of its truth is to be drawn from its 
 own self-evidencing certainty in reason. A religion of 
 this kind would objectively be natural, and only sub- 
 jectively revealed ; wherefore its appropriate style and 
 title would be that of Natural Religion ; for even if, in the 
 sequel, it were to pass to oblivion that a preternatural pro- 
 mulgation of it had ever taken place, still would it not on 
 that account lose one tittle of its certainty, its facility of 
 comprehension, or motive force upon the mind. The very 
 contrary holds true of that religion whose inner structure 
 is such as to render it essentially revealed : were it not 
 carefully preserved by accurate traditions, or entrusted to 
 that guardian document — a sacred book — it would pass 
 from the world, and must then from time to time be pub- 
 licly renewed; or else, privately a continuous preternatu- 
 ral revelation must take place in each individual, since 
 otherwise the faith could neither be spread nor kept alive. 
 To a certain extent, however, every, even a revealed re- 
 ligion, must present the lineaments of a natural religion. 
 It is only by force of reason that the idea revelation can 
 be superadded in thought to that of religion ; which last, 
 being derived from the idea of our subjection to the Will 
 of a moral lawgiver, is a pure rational conception. 
 Hence, even revealed religions must be open to examina- 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 207 
 
 tion, first as natural, and, second, as learned ; so as to en- 
 able us to test and discover what and how much from ei- 
 ther source have concurred to make up their constitution. 
 Now that we are about to treat of revealed religion — 
 at least of what is generally deemed a revelation — ^it may 
 be advisable to select an instance proper for this purpose : 
 we shall therefore take for our example a case such as we 
 find it in the history of our globe : otherwise necessary il- 
 lustrations must be invented; but then the possibility of 
 such supposed occurrences might not be granted. The 
 best course to pursue, will consequently be to take some 
 book or other that has interspersed its story with moral 
 doctrines allied to the notices of reason, and make this 
 volume serve as a handle whereby to make more readily 
 prehensile this our idea of revealed religion. Being one 
 of the many books treating of godliness and virtue that 
 have long obtained currency under the garb of a re- 
 velation, its dissection will clearly and lucidly set forth 
 that most useful and needful process of extracting from 
 its multiform details what is therein to be found of pure, 
 and therefore rational religion universal. It must, how- 
 ever, well be noted, that this experiment does not in the 
 least intromit with the occupation of those to whom the 
 interpretation of the book, as a collection of positive reveal- 
 ed institutes, is entrusted ; neither does it attack that ex- 
 position which by force of erudition they have drawn from 
 the document. In truth, an essay in the following man- 
 ner is rather advantageous than otherwise to the church ; 
 both revelation and philosophy having but one common 
 end, viz. forwarding the culture of the moral good ; only 
 the philosopher proposes by the natural operation of each 
 man's own understanding to bring him to that goal, reach- 
 
208 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 ed ecclesiastically along the diverse, though not contrary, 
 road of revelation. The book in question shall be the 
 New Testament, the fountain of faith Christian. Con- 
 sistently with the plan just sketched, let us scrutinize the 
 principles of Christianity, first, as natural, and then, se- 
 cond, as a learned religion. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS NATURAL RELIGION. 
 
 Natural religion, consisting as it does of two parts, 
 FIRST, morals (based upon the freedom of the human 
 will), taken, however, secot!JI)Ly, in connection with ideas, 
 by pre-supposing or assuming the reality whereof alone, 
 can the last end of our ethic being be figured as attain- 
 able, viz. the idea of God as the moral author of the 
 world : together with the representation of such a dura- 
 tion of our existence {J,mmortality) as is congruous to such 
 destination ; — natural religion, thus understood, is, I say, 
 a pure practical, and moreover rational conception, which, 
 notwithstanding its incomputable ethical fertility, de- 
 mands so scanty a grasp of speculative understanding, 
 that every person may, to all practical intents and pur- 
 poses, be amply certiorated of its truth ; and the effects 
 of this belief may be expected to tell upon the actual per- 
 formance of our duty. This natural religion possesses 
 undeniably the first requisite of a true church, viz. a qua- 
 lification fitting it for universality, so far forth as, by this 
 latter term, we understand that validity for every man 
 (universitas vel oinnitudo distribiUiva) which brings with it 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 209 
 
 an absolute and exceptionless mutual understanding. To 
 preserve and spread the religion of nature as a general 
 cosmical religion, would, no doubt, require Servants, but 
 not Officers, of the church invisible, i. e. Teachers, but not 
 Dignitaries ; seeing that, through the religion intelligen- 
 tial of each singular individual, no Church, qua general 
 association [omnitudo collectiva), exists, nor is indeed even 
 intended to be brought forth by that pure a priori idea. 
 Again, since a common and jointly clear understanding 
 in religious matters cannot maintain itself by its own 
 self-regulating and perpetuating action ; and, in fact, 
 since general concord and uniformity in religion cannot 
 be upheld and spread unless the church become visible, 
 i. e. can be upheld only then when a collective or corpo- 
 rate body — consolidating the society of believers into a 
 church visible, regulated upon the principles of pure re- 
 ligion intelligential — has been erected ; and no such cor- 
 poration can spontaneously arise from such bare parallel- 
 ism and consent of views — nay, what says far more, since, 
 even were a corporate society of this sort once set agoing, 
 still (as was seen above) it could not be brought into a 
 condition of permanency as a standing congregation of 
 the faithful. Since, I say, all this is the case, it is perfectly 
 manifest that, unless above and beyond the natural laws 
 cognizable by naked reason, there be superadded sundry 
 statutable authoritative edicts, something will be still 
 awanting requisite to bring about a permanent and abiding 
 union of mankind in a visible church universal ; which 
 union we represented in the former book as a peculiar 
 duty, sui generis, and a mean toward attaining the high- 
 est and last ends of our moral destination. This super- 
 
210 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 added authority can only flow from tlie Founder of an Ec- 
 clesiastical Polity; and here we must needs infringe upon 
 a FACT, over and above the naked idea of pure reason. 
 
 Although it were conceded, that once upon a time there 
 had appeared a teacher, of whom history — or at least a 
 current opinion not satisfactorily overthrown — relates that 
 he promulgated a universally comprehensible and pene- 
 trating religion; yet, so far as the fragments of his tenets 
 have been handed down to us, we are quite in a condition 
 to judge for ourselves of the spirit of his doctrines, and 
 can hence more readily assent to what is asserted of him 
 — viz. that he first openly insisted on this moral faith, and 
 that, too, in despite of the dominant church-creed, which 
 was irksome, devoid of every moral content, and consisting 
 in a merely mercenary and servile ritual (which, by the 
 way, may serve extremely well as a specimen illustra- 
 tive of all other, in the main, merely statutable beliefs — 
 different varieties whereof filled up, at that time, the 
 whole known and civilized parts of the earth) ; — all this, I 
 say, being conceded, then, although to his moral religion 
 universal, which he represented as the necessary ground- 
 work, and insisted on, as the supreme and irregressible 
 condition, of every other form and sort of religious faith 
 whatsoever — he went on to affix one or two injunctions, 
 containing forms and observances ; still, because those 
 last were intended merely as rivets, to keep and fasten 
 together the church, grounded on the aforesaid principles, 
 we cannot dispute nor deny the claims of this his insti- 
 tution to be the true catholic church, nor yet his own 
 claim to carry off the high prize of having then first sum- 
 moned his fellow-men to rally and combine under its 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 211 
 
 standards, notwithstanding the contingency and aibitra* 
 riness of those appended ordinances ; for it does not ap- 
 pear that he intended these to be amalgamated vvitli the 
 faith, nor that the performance of that slender ceremo- 
 nial was to be mistaken for a holy act, in itself obliga- 
 tory, and a constituent element of religion. 
 
 The description just given can leave no one in doubt 
 as to the person fitly venerated as the founder, not by 
 any means of that untraditional religion primordially 
 insculpted on the hearts of all, but as the founder of the 
 first true church based thereon. In attestation of the 
 dignity of his divine mission, we will cite a few of his 
 sayings, containing passages that undoubtedlyauthenticate 
 themselves as parts of religion in genere. Be it then with 
 the narrative as it may, the ideas do, in themselves, afford 
 ground enough to render them worthy of all acceptation, 
 being in truth decrees of pure reason ; and these are they 
 alone, that not only prove themselves, but even lend part 
 of their evidence to accredit the foreign doctrines in whose 
 company they appear. 
 
 First, he contends that no observance of statutable 
 church-duties, but only a pure, honest, moral mind, can 
 make mankind acceptable to God {Matth. v. 20-48) ; that 
 transgressions by thought are deemed by God equal to 
 those perpetrated in deed (v. 28) ; e. g. that inwardly to 
 hate is tantamount to murder (v. 22) ; and that generally, 
 upon the whole, holiness is the grand object toward which 
 the end of every action should be directed (v. 48). In- 
 juries inflicted by us on our neighbour can only be re- 
 dressed by making him due reparation, but not by any 
 ceremonial or ritual of temple or divine worship (v. 24). 
 As for veracity, he teaches, that the common forensic in- 
 
212 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 strument for extorting it — THEOATHf — derogates from the 
 reverence due to truth itself (v. 34-37). We likewise 
 read, that the naturally perverse hias of the human heart 
 raust be entirely retroverted, — the appetite for secret re- 
 venge give place to placability (v. 39, 40), and the hatred 
 of our enemies make a transit to beneficence (v. 44). By 
 such deeds as these he declares his intent of coming to 
 fulfil the whole Jewish law (v. 17), where, however, he 
 obviously must mean to make, not book-learning, but pure 
 rational religion, interpreter of the code ; since, taken to 
 the letter, the Pentateuch allowed, and even ordained, the 
 very contrary of most of the above. 
 
 By the difference obtaining betwixt the strait gate and 
 the broad way, he next calls attention to that misconstruc- 
 tion of the law whereby the Jews allowed themselves to 
 
 •\ It is difficult to account for the little attention paid to this plain pro- 
 hibition directed against the usual forensic mode of extorting truth — a 
 mode based entirely upon superstition, not upon conscientiousness. That 
 superstition is what is here counted on, may be certainly inferred from 
 this circumstance, that although we assume of a witness that he is to be 
 trusted when he solemnly affirms somewhat touching the rights of his 
 fellow-men (the most sacred object that we mankind can deal with here 
 below), we do nevertheless hold, that by the Formula of an Oath his 
 statement becomes credible, although the oath does not differ in any re- 
 spect from the solemn asseveration, except that he calls down upon him- 
 self the divine judgments (which, in any event, he cannot evade) if he 
 swerve from truth, just as if it depended upon him to undergo or avoid 
 the ethical vengeance impending over those who violate the rights of 
 their neighbour. In the passage of scripture cited in the text, this prac- 
 tice of swearing is represented as an absurdity void of rhyme or reason, 
 as if we attempted by uttering spells to bring to pass what lies beyond 
 our power. But when the wise teacher says that a communication sur- 
 passing the simple yea, yea — nay, nav, cometh of evil, it is obvious 
 that he calls our attention to the bad consequences arising from oaths, 
 viz. that their imagined greater weight and importance almost seems to 
 lend a sanction to common every -day dog-trot lying. 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 213 
 
 overlook real moral duties, and to fancy they compensated 
 for such violations of integrity by a diligent observance 
 of church-duty (vii. 13).f 
 
 The only admissible proof of pure morality within, are 
 those good works which are its fruit (v. 16 and 20). He 
 consequently cuts short the fraudulent hope of those who 
 imagine they can make up for their want of good deeds 
 by invocations and hosannahs of the Heavenly Lawgiver 
 in the person of his Ambassador, and think by thus fawn- 
 ing and crouching to ingratiate themselves into the So- 
 vereign's favour (v. 21). These good works ought far- 
 ther to be so performed, that the observed motives whence 
 they sprang, may induce others to glorify God in like 
 manner (v. 16) ; and that too with a cheerful mind, not 
 as actions sadly and servilely extorted (vi. 16). By the 
 communication and interchange of morally re-acting sen- 
 timents and deeds, a commencement of religion will be 
 made, which, however small at first, will, like mustard- 
 seed scattered through a field, or leaven hid in meal, 
 gradually swell by its own inward and augmenting power, 
 till it attain the full size and growth of a kingdom of God 
 (xiii. 31-33). Finally, he compendiously comprises all 
 the offices of humanity, firsts under a rule universal 
 (embracing at once the inward and outward moral rela- 
 tionships of humanity), viz. discharge thy duty from no 
 spring other than an immediate estimation of its worth,- 
 
 ■\ The STRAIT GATE and narrow way leading unto life, is the path of 
 good moral conduct. The wide gate and broad way, trodden by the 
 majority, is the church : not that the church or its traditions are the effi- 
 cient causes why mankind are lost, but that the going in thereat, to- 
 gether with confessing the articles of the creed, and celebrating its multi- 
 tbrm rites, is mistaken for the mode in which God wills to be worshipped. 
 
214 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 i. e. Love God (the ethical Legislator) above all ; and, 
 secondly, under a rule particular, treating singly of the 
 special outward relation obtaining betwixt man and man, 
 viz. love thy neighbour as thyself, i. e. promote his well- 
 being out of immediate unselfish benevolence. These 
 two commandments are not merely laws of virtue, but be- 
 hests of holiness; our unremitted wrestling and strug- 
 gling after which last, is what is properly called vir- 
 tue. They who, with shut eyes and folded hands, wait 
 slothfuUy for the moral good as a gift to be passive- 
 ly received from above, are informed, that their ex- 
 pectation is no better than the dream of a sluggard. In 
 like manner, whoso leaves uncultivated the original sus- 
 ceptibility of his moral nature toward good {i. e. suf- 
 fers, as it were, his confided talent to rust), in the idle 
 confidence that some higher moral power will supply his 
 thereby begotten moral shortcomings and defects : him 
 doth Christ threaten, that even that good which may ne- 
 vertheless have sprouted from the original stock of his 
 nature, will just, on account of that very neglect, stand 
 him in no stead, but be deducted from his account 
 (xxv. 29). 
 
 Touching the expectation naturally entertained by 
 all men, of a happy lot proportioned to the deserts of 
 their moral conduct (especially when worldly comforts 
 have been renounced for the sake of duty), tlicy are met 
 with a promise (v. 11, 12) tliat a reward awaits them in 
 fL future world. This allotment varies according to the 
 difference of motive, whereby each party's conduct has 
 been actuated. Duty discharged for the sake of ro^^■ard, 
 and with the view of escaping punishment, is not so recom- 
 pensed, as where the law has been honoured for its own 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 915 
 
 sake. The Utilitarian, whom self-interest, the God of 
 this world, governs ; and who, without renouncing his 
 solipsism, merely extends his selfish calculations bej^ond 
 the circumscribed boundary of present time, is represent- 
 ed as such a steward {Luke xvi. 3-9) as makes that his 
 Lord {self-interest) cheat and circumvent himself. For, 
 on reflecting that he must speedily quit this world, and 
 that he cannot take hence what he possessed below, he 
 resolves to make a sacrifice of whatever sums he (or his 
 master — utilitarianism) might legally have exacted from 
 the indigent : for what the needy debtor is permitted to 
 subtract from his account, bills, or acknowledgments of 
 this fancied beneficence, payable in another world, are 
 taken in return ; a method of procedure rather cunning 
 than MORAL, at least when regard is had to the inward 
 spring of such seeming good-will. The beneficent act is, 
 however, outwardly conformable to the law, and so al- 
 lows him to hope that his refined and self-seeking charity 
 may not go unrewarded.f Let this parable be compared 
 with the one {Maith. xxv. 35-40) where the Sovereign 
 Judge of the World declares those who help the needy, 
 without so much as ever thinking that their services me- 
 
 •f Of futurity we know nothing ; and ought indeed to expect no far- 
 ther information than suffices to assist us in the discharge of duty, or to 
 explain to us our last and chief end. To this class belongs the hypothe- 
 sis, that every good action done in this world will be met retributively 
 with corresponding good results in another. Now, if this be so, then at 
 the close of life, let a man be found ever so reprobate, still his vicious 
 career ought not to deter him from doing at least one good action should 
 it be in his power, as he may thereby hope, that in proportion to the 
 honest-mindedness of his intention, this act will be of some more worth 
 than those deedless penances and expiations, which, without deducting 
 from his guilt, are supposed to compensate for the defects of one's mo- 
 rality. 
 
216 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 lit a reward, or bind heaven to recompense, to be the true 
 elect of his kingdom ; and, from this connected compari- 
 son, it will be amply obvious, that the Teacher of the 
 Gospel, when speaking of rewards in a world to come, 
 did not intend them to incline the will to action ; but 
 aimed only at making such soul-exalting representations 
 of the consummated completion of the divine benignity 
 and wisdom, an object of high moral and reverential com- 
 placency to that understanding which contemplates the 
 last and chief destination of Agent- Intelligents. 
 
 Thus have we found in Christ's tenets a finished sketch 
 and outline of a religion that can be brought home to the 
 convictions and conceptions of every one ; and that, by 
 force of his own reason, the practicability whereof has 
 been set forth by an example, making intuitive the possi- 
 bility and necessity of adopting that ideal prototype as 
 the standard of our manners. The truth of those doc- 
 trines, and the authority and dignity of their teacher, re- 
 quire no foreign confirmation, such as miracles or biblical 
 lore, which are not within the reach of all. When ap- 
 peals are made to the legislation of an earlier age, and a 
 secondary meaning given to the oracles of the Jewish 
 sages, these are not to be understood as if they were in- 
 tended to bear witness to the truth of his doctrines. Tliey 
 are designed only for an introduction or vehicle, procuring 
 them an inlet among people blindly attached to what- 
 ever was ancient. To convey truth to those whose heads 
 are besotted with the statute-articles of a creed, and 
 consequently numb to the religion of reason, is always a 
 far more difficult task than to impart instruction to un- 
 derstandings, which, though uninstructcd, are unbiassed 
 and disengaged. Hence we need not be surprised if a 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 217 
 
 mode of exposition, adapted to the prejudices of the day, 
 should now seem enigmatically dark, and stand much in 
 need of a cautious and elaborate exegesis, although a reli- 
 gion everywhere shines through, that demands no effort 
 or learning to become alike intelligible and convincing. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A LEARNED RELIGION. 
 
 Religions that propound certain credenda as necessary, 
 although these statute-articles of faith can by no means 
 be recognised as such by reason, must be regarded as sa- 
 cred goods entrusted to the guardianship of the learned, 
 of the very essence of whose office it is continually to pro- 
 pel the uncorrupted faith through all present and future 
 times ; and apart from their unintermitted agency, it would 
 be requisite to assume the standing miracle of a perpetual 
 revelation : for, although the miraculous events by which 
 it was at first ushered into the world, may have ob- 
 tained for such a system a general and cordial reception, 
 even in those its more questionable points, touching which 
 reason is altogether silent; yet, in the sequel, the very 
 narrative of those events, and still more the peculiar doc- 
 trines founded on them, would need to be fortified by some 
 written institute, affording to subsequent ages the guaran- 
 tee of unchanging and official documents. 
 
 Adopting the principles of a religion is called faith, 
 mT t^o^riv fjides sacra), whence Christian faith will fall 
 under investigation, partly as pure rational faith, and 
 partly as revealed faith (Jides statiitaria). The former 
 
218 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF (lOD 
 
 will appear, under the light of one freely and universally 
 assented to (fides elicita) ; the latter, as one statutably or- 
 dained (fides imperata). Thus, that a germ of evil lies 
 deeply rooted in the heart, from which perverse bias no 
 man is free ; that it is impossible to regard our actions as 
 justifying us before God, and yet indispensable that we 
 possess a righteousness valid in his sight, which no church 
 rite or ceremonial can impart ; likewise that it is an im- 
 mediate and inexorable obligation to become better men : 
 these I say — all these, are points patent to the scrutiny of 
 each man's own reason, and it is an essential part of na- 
 tural religion, that each individual satisfy and certiorate 
 himself of tlieir truth. 
 
 At that juncture, however, where the Christian doc- 
 trines rise not upon ideas of pure reason, but upon histo- 
 ric facts, there Christianity ceases to be called Christian 
 RELIGION, and becomes Christian faith, serving for the 
 ground-work of a church. Church -worship, founded upon 
 such a bi-form belief, will of course present a twofold 
 aspect, the one pourtrayiug the lineaments of the historic 
 narrative, the other exhibiting the phase of the pure a 
 priori ethical belief. Both are intimately blended in the 
 Christian church, nor can either be regarded as subsist- 
 ing apart : the former cannot be severed from the latter 
 inasmuch as the Christian faith is a rcfif/ions faith, neither 
 can the latter be detached from the former, because the 
 Christian faith is furthermore a learned faith. 
 
 Christianity, considered as a learned faith, rests upon 
 history ; wherefore, so far forth as erudition constitutes 
 an element of its composition, it is not in itself a free re- 
 lief, spontaneously emerging from a rational ami con- 
 vincing insight, into any sufficiently established theoretic 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PFxlNClPLE. 219 
 
 argumentation (fides elicita). Were Christianity nothing 
 but a pure rational belief, then would it undoubtedly — al- 
 though the moral laws whereon it as belief in a divine 
 lawgiver is grounded command unconditionally — be ne- 
 cessarily regarded as a free belief, under Avhich character, 
 indeed, we treated of it in the former section. Nay, we 
 may even go a great deal farther and say, that had not 
 assent to it been enjoined lapon mankind by some, as a 
 duty, then would Christianity as a historical belief be fur- 
 thermore a free theoretical faith — provided every one were 
 learned. But are we to be told that it is imperatively bind- 
 ing upon evei-y one, even the unlettered, then would it be 
 not only a commanded faith, but also a blind and servile 
 faith, obsequiously obedient to a commandment, although 
 no previous investigation have been made as to whether 
 this alleged commandment really contain a divine behest 
 (fides servilis). 
 
 Christianity, considered as a revelation, cannot possibly 
 commence with an unconditioned assent to occult doc- 
 trines, said to be communications from on high, and then 
 call in the aid of literature and history to ward off ene- 
 mies who skirmish on the rear of the revealed truths; for 
 in this case, too, would the Christian faith be not merely 
 fides imperata ; but, moreover, and in very ^e<d^, fides ser- 
 vilis. Consequently, it must at all times be taught and 
 propounded as fides historice elicita ; i. e. erudition and 
 moral science must lead forward the van, not skulk as the 
 rear-guard of the Christian revealed faith. Were this 
 system of ethical tactics inverted, then would the order 
 of the clergy — {the Biblical Literati) — albeit they cannot 
 dispense with profane learning, bring after them the long 
 train of unlearned laics, in which illiterate company, even 
 
220 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 the Head of the State may at times be seen to figure. 
 Are we intent that this shall not take place, then must 
 historical erudition retire to the second place, and reason 
 and natural religion be recognised and honoured as the 
 supreme dominant principle in Christianity; while those 
 revealed tenets upon which the church rises, and that 
 have learning for their interpreter and preserver, may 
 very well be cherished and cultivated as a highly valuable 
 mean : but still no more than a mere mean, for assisting 
 the propulsion and permanency of the former, and at the 
 same time bringing its doctrines to the smoother level of 
 general comprehension. 
 
 This is the true church-service under the dominion of 
 the Good Principle ; but when the matter is reversed, and 
 revelation placed before religion, then is the church-ser- 
 vice a false and spurious worship ; that which is merely a 
 mean, being insisted on absolutely, as were it in itself the 
 end. Belief in tenets, whereof the uninstructed can know 
 nothing either from writ or reason (the writings stand- 
 ing in need of erudite authentication), is now represented 
 as an unconditioned and immediate duty (Jides imperata) ; 
 and, together with a suite of concomitant observances, a 
 mercenary upstart worship is elevated, though its services 
 are voidjof moral springs, to the rank of the alone justify- 
 ing and saving faith. A church established upon such 
 statute-articles of belief does not contain ministers, for 
 they are exclusively peculiar to the other, but high eccle- 
 siastic officers. True, they may not, as in some Protest- 
 ant churches, shine in the splendour of hierarchs, and ap- 
 pear arrayed with the trappings of external power ; nay, 
 they may even in words protest loudly against such abuses •" 
 they arc notwithstanding ecclesiasticks, who wish to be 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 221 
 
 holden the sole fit interpreters of Holy Writ : pure mo- 
 ral religion having previously been stripped of its dignity 
 and robbed of its title to sit in inappellable judgment on 
 the import and intendment of revelation ; while Scripture- 
 learning is thrust into its room, and ordained to make all 
 usurpations tell in favour of the Church-Creed. Thus is 
 the service {ministerium) of the Church turned into a lord- 
 ing {imperium) it over the flock, although, to conceal the 
 usurpation and encroachment, the former style is sedu- 
 lously retained. But this sway, easy had it been admi- 
 nistered by Reason, becomes extremely costly, and la- 
 vishes the resources of much book-learning. For, igno- 
 rant of human nature and the sciences, divines have pul- 
 led antiquity about their ears, and lie now nearly smother- 
 ed beneath its rubbish. The course of matters once brought 
 to this pass has been, and is, as follows : 
 
 The interpretations of the ancient legends, wisely sug- 
 gested by the first preachers of Christianity as a strata- 
 gem for weaning their countrymen from inveterate pre- 
 judices, were subsequently declared integrant elements of 
 religion ; so much so, that one would almost be led to sup- 
 pose each Christian was first of all a Jew whose Messiah had 
 appeared; a hypothesis, however, standing in open con- 
 tradiction with the fact, that Christians are expressly ab- 
 solved from every law of Judaism, although they receive 
 the Sacred Writings of this people as divinely inspired, 
 and as containing the narrative of matters in which the 
 whole world are concerned.* And yet the authenticity of 
 
 * Mendelsohn has dexterously availed himself of this weak side of the 
 common view of Christianity, to repel all proposals made to any descend, 
 ant of Israel for abandoning the faith of his forefathers. Why, says he, 
 agreeably to your own showing, Judaism is the ground-floor above which 
 
222 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 the Books is loaded with many difficulties. Previous to 
 the advent of Christianity, the Jewish records were un- 
 known to the literary world. Hence we have no check 
 upon their accuracy, nor corroborative testimony to their 
 historic truth. Again, even were all those doubts waived, 
 still it is not enough to become acquainted with the text 
 in vernacular translations. The Church-Creed founded 
 on such a volume can only be guarded by learned watch- 
 men, thoroughly versant in the Hebrew tongue (if indeed 
 such knowledge be attainable of a language where only 
 one volume remains extant), and this preservation of the 
 text affects to be regarded not merely as an inquiry in the 
 fields of antiquarian research, but as an investigation of 
 such moment as to be inseparably connected with the sal- 
 vation of our race ; wherefore there must, at all times and 
 in all nations, be a body of men sufficiently read in orien- 
 tal letters to guarantee to the world what is to pass cur- 
 rent as the true religion. 
 
 Similarly defective are the evidences of the Christian 
 religion ; the sacred events are no doubt reported to have 
 
 Christianity is erected ; wherefore to leave it is pretty much the same 
 as if one were to pull down his sunk stories in order to sit more commo- 
 diously in the attic. His real meaning is tolerably transparent. What 
 he suggests is this : " Do ye first purge your religion of its Jewish leaven, 
 and then we will deliberate upon the nature of your proposal." (In truth, 
 were Christianity thus clarified, a pure unmixed moral religion would 
 remain.) " Our yoke is not lightened by exchanging a cumbrous ritual 
 for a professed faith in sacred traditions, which last hamper conscience 
 far more grievously." 
 
 The sacred books of this race will always be highly prized and studied 
 by the learned, but not for the sake of their religion. No history ascends 
 with even a semblance of credibility to such remote epochs of pristine 
 time as the Jewish, dating, as it does, downwards even from the begin- 
 ning of the world. The enormous gap left by the profane writers must 
 necessarily be filled up by something. 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE, 223 
 
 occurred before the very eyes of a learned nation, and yet 
 one generation passed away before the alleged facts were 
 put in possession of the literati of the day ; the conse- 
 quence is, that the credit of the narrative is unsupported 
 and unconfirmed by the concurrent evidence of any con- 
 temporary witnesses. Christianity, however, possesses 
 one signal advant.ige over Judaism ; it was promulgated 
 from the lips of its great Author, not as a statutable, but 
 as a moral religion. Hence it goes hand in hand with 
 pure Reason, and can be introduced by it, quite apart from 
 any historic learning, and can be presented on the strength 
 of its own self-evidence to every nation, even to the re- 
 motest times. Howbeit the founders of the early con- 
 gregations found it advisable to weld up therewith the 
 Jewish history; and this amalgam, probably prudent, 
 or even necessary in their day, has been handed down to 
 us along with other sacred reliques. Those who sub- 
 sequently combined the congregations into one catholic 
 CHURCH mistook this introductory and recommendatory 
 vehicle for an essential article of belief. They next con- 
 nected it with traditions or expositions, to which Councils 
 gave the force of law. Thus was a Church-Creed fabri- 
 cated ; now hermeneutically treated, either by learning, 
 or by this last's antagonist — the inward light. These 
 put various constructions on the meaning ; and as every 
 layman can provide himself with the magic lantern above 
 mentioned, it is impossible to foresee what changes of con- 
 figui'ation may still await the forms of faith ecclesiastical, 
 a thing indeed quite inevitable, so long as we seek the 
 well-springs of religion not within but without us. 
 
224 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 APOTOME II. 
 
 OF THE SUPERSTITIOUS WORSHIP OF GOD IN A 
 STATUTABLE RELIGION. 
 
 The true and alone Religion contains nothing but 
 Laws, L e. practical principles, whose unconditional ne- 
 cessity we are conscious of, and which therefore we re- 
 cognise by Reason ; not a posteriori as revealed. Only for 
 the behoof of a church (whereof there may be \ay\o\x& forms, 
 all alike good) can there be statutes, i. e. alleged divine 
 commandments, which are in the eye of ethical judgment 
 arbitrary and contingent. This statutable faith (confined 
 to one particular race, and incapable of being represented 
 as the catholic religion of our globe), when deemed es- 
 sential to the worship of God, and made the supreme con- 
 dition of the divine complacency, is a main delusionf in 
 
 •f- Delusiox (imagination, whimsey, conceit, or fancy, — Gcrmanice, 
 ■\Vahn, Tr.) is that deception wliereb}' a man regards the representa- 
 tion of a thing as equivalent to the thing itself Thus the miser is 
 blinded and befooled by the avaricious imagination, viz. to hold the re- 
 presentation that he can use his treasures when he pleases, as an equi- 
 valent and indemnity for his never doing so. Fantastic imaginary ho- 
 nour places in the praises of others, which at bottom are no more than 
 the outward representation of an esteem (perhaps not at all inwardly 
 felt), a worth attaching only to that esteem itself. It is upon this 
 fancy that the thirst for titles, stars, and garters arises, these last being 
 no more than the outward representations of excellence. Even the 
 whimsical are only so called, and held crazed, because they are in the 
 custom of pursuing empty whims, as had they real objects corresponding 
 to them, i. e. of so acting as if they mistook representations for realities. 
 Now, the consciousness of possessing means, to an end is prior to actual 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 225 
 
 religion, and the acting upon it a superstitious worship, 
 by which, in fact, the true real service demanded from us 
 by God is counteracted. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 OF THE SUBJECTIVE GROUND OF A DELUSION IN RELIGION. 
 
 Anthropomorphism can hardly be avoided by man, and 
 is, so long as it does not influence his ideas of duty, quite 
 harmless, for then it aifects only our theoretic mode of 
 figuring to ourselves God and his essence. But when an- 
 thropomorphous fancies begin to vitiate our notions of 
 the practical relation obtaining betwixt us and God's holy 
 will, it then threatens to become highly dangerous to our 
 morality, in as much as we frame to ourselves such a God* 
 
 use of them, the possession of that end only in a representation : conse- 
 quently, to content one's self with the latter, as if it could stand in room 
 of the former, is a practical delusion or craze (wahn) ; which latter sort 
 of whimsey is what we are about to treat of. 
 
 * Doubtless it sounds odd to say that we frame to ourselves our God : 
 the expression is, notwithstanding, perfectly correct. In truth, every 
 person must, according to his moral notions, such as they are, figure to 
 himself a Supreme Illimitable Moral Agent, able to bend and control the 
 course of the physical system, so as to make it harmonize with moral 
 ends, and whom he then learns to revere as his Creator. No matter 
 how others may have described God, each individual must first compare 
 this description with his own idea, in order to see if the Being represent- 
 ed, be fit to be acknowledged and worshipped as a Deity. Even were 
 God himself to appear (supposing such a manifestation possible), the 
 same test would still require to be applied. Wherefore, bare revelation, 
 when not based upon that idea previously laid down, could not furnish 
 us with a religion, and, whatever worship it might give rise to, could 
 only be idolatry. 
 
 P 
 
226 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 as is most easily won over to our advantage, and imagine 
 that we may dispense with the arduous unremitting exer- 
 tion to advance the inward intensity of our moral senti- 
 ments. The position usually laid down hy mankind touch- 
 ing this practical relation is (supposing that the assumed 
 position does not militate against morality, hut merely tends 
 in uowise toward it), that what we do with a view to 
 please God, exhibits our readiness to serve him, as obe- 
 dient, and so his acceptable servants, — by all which God 
 is in potentia served. It is not always by sacrifice that 
 mankind fancies he can accomplish and discharge this 
 worship : solemnities, games, as at Greece and Rome, 
 were often resorted to for this purpose. They are, in- " 
 deed, in some places, still resorted to, to propitiate the God- 
 head. However, the first kind (penances, formal castiga- 
 tions, pilgrimages, &c.) has usually been held the more 
 powerful to gain the favour of Heaven, and to expurge sin, 
 because they shew forth the more unbounded though not 
 ethical subjection to God's will. The more senseless such 
 self-castigations obviously are, and the less they point at 
 the moral amelioration of the man, so much the more 
 sanctity do they seem to have ; which they do, upon this 
 reason, that, since they are useless, and cost merely trouble, 
 therefore their whole end can be singly to shew devotcd- 
 ness to God ; for, say they, although in all this God is in 
 no wise served, yet he sees a good will, and regards 
 chiefly the heart, which is too weak to keep his command- 
 ments; but which does, by its willingness shewn in iliis 
 manner, make np for its defects. This discloses a prono- 
 ness to a procedure which has in itself no moral worth, 
 except as a mean to exalt the sensory, so as to accompany 
 the intellectual idea of the end, or perhaps to depress the 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 227 
 
 sensory should tlie ideas re-act against it.f This artifice 
 of stirring or compelling our sentient framework, in or- 
 der toward a certain end, becomes a procedure that is 
 made to stand in room of the end itself; or, which amounts 
 to the same thing, we attach to a fi-ame of mind which 
 has susceptibility for sentiments of godliness {called Devo- 
 tion), the worth of that last itself; all which procedure is 
 just a fancied delusion in religion, that may assume all 
 kinds of forms, in some of which the delusive imagina- 
 tion may have a more ethical aspect than in others, and 
 yet is, throughout the whole of them, not a mere inad- 
 vertency, but a fixed maxim, to ascribe to the means the 
 worth of the end, — a perverse imagination equally absurd 
 in all those forms, and objectionable as a latent bias to 
 self-deception. 
 
 f For the sake of those who, not being quite at home in the distinc- 
 tions betwixt the sensible and intelligential, think they constantly im- 
 pinge upon contradictions in my writings, I here remark, that, when I 
 talk of sensible means forwarding the intellectual growth of good, or of 
 hindrances thrown by sense in the way of our morality, the action of 
 those heterogeneous principles on one another must never be figured to 
 • be direct. As sentient beings, we so know and judge of the phenomena 
 of reason's supersensible causality, i. e. the determinations of our physi- 
 cal powers by free voluntary choice, as if cause and effect were perfectly 
 homogeneous. As intelligents, again, the subjective principle of morality 
 within, must be placed in that unfathomable property of our nature, free- 
 dom. Of this last we know only the regulating law ; and its connection 
 with visible effects is quite beyond our insight. Consequently we can- 
 not EXPLAIN those physical events which are imputable to us as our 
 deeds from that ethic peculiarity of our nature. The full rationale of all 
 occurrences must at all times be sought for in the sensible system. 
 
228 OF rm: true and false woiiship of god 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 OF THE MORAL PRINCIPLE WHICH REASON OPPOSES TO ALL 
 DELUSIONS IN RELIGION. 
 
 I lay down the following preliminary position, as one 
 requiring no proof. EVERYTHING MANKIND FANCIES 
 HE CAN DO, OVER AND ABOVE GOOD MORAL CONDUCT, IN 
 ORDER TO MAKE HIMSELF ACCEPTABLE TO GOD, IS MERE 
 
 FALSE WORSHIP OF THE Deity. I say, whatever man 
 fancies he can do; for that something, beyond all our ex- 
 ertions, may lie in the mysteries of supreme wisdom, pos- 
 sible to be performed by God alone, and making us ac- 
 ceptable in his sight, is not denied by me. But even if 
 the church were to promulgate, as revealed, any such mys- 
 tery, still the opinion, that to believe in this revelation, as 
 taught in the sacred volume, and to confess, whether in- 
 wardly or outwardly, such belief, were in itself anything 
 rendering us acceptable to God, would be a dangerous de- 
 lusion in religion. For this belief, considered as the in- 
 ward self-confession of one's stedfast conviction, is so cer- 
 tainly AN ACT, extorted by fear, that an honest upright 
 man would rather accept any other condition ; because all 
 outward ceremonial worship mankind need only regard 
 as something supererogatory to be gone through ; whereas 
 here he violates his conscience, by declaring in its pre- 
 sence what he is not convinced of. The confession, there- 
 fore, with regard to which, lie persuades himself, that it 
 {as the acceptance of a proffered boon) will make him ac- 
 ceptable to God, is something he imagines he can do, in 
 addition to the moral conduct that the law ordains him to 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 229 
 
 execute in tlie world, nnd which is done for tlie worship of 
 God singly. 
 
 Ftrst. — Reason does not leave us without consolation 
 with respect to the want of our own righteousness. Rea- 
 son says, that he who exerts his whole powers in the dis- 
 charge of duty, so as constantly to approximate toward 
 tlie law, may hope, that what lies beyond his power will 
 be supplied by the Supreme Wisdom in some way, with- 
 out pretending to investigate what that mode may be ; 
 which may be so mysterious that God can perhaps only 
 show it forth in a symbolical representation, the practical 
 j)art of which may alone be intelligible to us ; whilst the 
 theoretic relation subsisting betwixt God and man may 
 be such, that we could connect no notions therewith, 
 even were such a mystery thoroughly divulged. Sup- 
 pose, now, a particular church were to undertake to say, 
 that it knew the exact mode how God would supply 
 man's moi'al defectibility, and were to consign all men 
 ignorant of this foreign principle of justification (a prin- 
 ciple indiscernible and unconfessed by reason) to eternal 
 reprobation, who, I ask, were, in such event, the un- 
 believer ? He who trusts, without knowing how, that 
 what he hopes for, will be effected ; or he who insists upon 
 knowing, wherein lies this redemption from evil, and with- 
 out this, despairs of it? — Properly speaking, the latter is 
 at bottom not intent on knowing the mystery (for even 
 his reason tells him, that it is altogether profitless to be 
 instructed in what lies far beyond his ken, and his prac- 
 tical ability to reach). He insists on an acquaintance 
 with it, mainly that he may make out of its belief a wor- 
 ship, in the acceptance, confession, and lauding, of all 
 this revelation ; which worship is to procure him the fa- 
 
230 OF THE TKUE AND FALSE WORSHII' OF GOD 
 
 vour of Heaven, prior to any use of his own exertions to- 
 ward a moral life. Possibly this worship may even aim 
 at preternaturally producing an amendment of his inner 
 man, or otherwise, when this latter project fails, make 
 up and compensate for all his violations. 
 
 SECOND. — If mankind depart in the least from the 
 above preliminary ethic principle, then superstition has 
 NO LIMITS ; the ancient boundary and landmarks of pure 
 reason disappear : and everything superadded besides and 
 beyond, is quite optional and arbitrary (always, however, 
 with this single proviso, that it contradict not morality). 
 From the sacrifice of a man's lips, which costs him little, 
 up to the sacrifice of his estate, which might be better 
 bestowed to the use of his fellow-men, — nay, even to the 
 offering up of his own person, as in the Hermit, Fakir, 
 or Monk's caste, where the man is lost to the world ; 
 everything is presented to the Deity, only not the man's 
 moral sentiments; and when he says he gives God his 
 lieart, he does not mean the sentiments of a Avalk and 
 conversation acceptable to God, but his hearty wish, that 
 these offerings may be accepted in lieu of the alone ethic 
 acceptable service. ( Natio gratis anhelans, multa agendo, 
 nihil agens. — Phjebrus.) 
 
 Lastly. — Whenever mankind has made a transit to 
 the maxim of a supposed worship, which may be in itself 
 acceptable, or, if need be, propitiatory, in tlie sight of 
 God (the worship supposed not being purely moral), then 
 is there no essential difference in this kind of mechanic 
 service which could give one sort of it a preference over 
 any other ; they all are alike worth, or rather worthless. 
 'Tis but Ihe fantastic manners of the exquissiloly fasti- 
 dious, when the bigot deems himself more select or choice 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 231 
 
 — by virtue of a more refined and studied apostacy from 
 the alone and single intellectual worship of the Deity, — 
 than they who fall into the more coarse and crass apos- 
 tasy of sense. Whether the devotee take his statutable 
 walk to Church, to Loretto, or to Palestine ; whether he 
 pronounce his forms of prayer by the lip, — inscribe them 
 upon flags to be unfurled, and thence wafted by the 
 winds, — fire them from a blunderbuss, — or, like the un- 
 tutored Thibetese, whirl them heavenwards from a wheel ; 
 or, indeed, 'whatever the surrogatum of the ethic wor- 
 ship of God be, is quite immaterial, and rested on the 
 same groundless flams. Nothing depends upon the dif- 
 ference of the outward ceremonial, but all upon adhering 
 to the only principle of becoming acceptable to God by 
 moral sentiments, so far as these can be made exhibitive 
 in actions, their phenomena, or else abandoning that 
 principle, and then attempting to please him by pious 
 drivelling and doing nothing.f — Is there not, then, some 
 one may ask, a giddy virtuous delusion, exaggerating it- 
 self beyond all limits of man's power, that ought, together 
 with the delusion in religion, to be ranked among the class 
 of self-deceptions? No! virtue occupies itself with some- 
 thing real, that is in itself acceptable to God, and in 
 
 + Here we may note a psychological phenomenon : Those who attacii 
 themselves to a confession in which there are but few articles to be believ- 
 ed, feel themselves thereby ennobled, when comparing themselves with 
 others whose creed deals more extensively with details. The reason 
 doubtless is, that they perceive themselves somewhat nearer pure moral 
 leligion, although they may have been unable to shake themselves en- 
 tirely free from the imagination that this religion requires to be propped 
 up by pious rites, — a circumstance that, were it a little more pondered, 
 might prevent Protestants from looking down upon their Catholic brethren 
 as they do. 
 
232 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 harmony with the general welfare of the whole world. 
 True ! no doubt a self-conceited fancy may sometimes 
 accompany it, when any one fondly imagines himself ade- 
 quate to the idea of his holy duty. But this is only an 
 accident. To attach supreme worth to virtue is no delu- 
 sion : which it is, to church-ceremonials. 
 
 Again, it is customary — especially for the church — to 
 call what can be done by one's own virtuous exertions 
 Nature; that, on the contrary, which supplies the want 
 of our ethic strength, Grace (a sufficiency which, since 
 we ought to possess it, can only be wished, or hoped for, 
 or supplicated) ; whilst both together are regarded as the 
 efficient causes, productive of a sentiment that brings forth 
 a course of life acceptable to God : but then these two 
 are not only contradistinguished; they are not unfre- 
 quently opposed to one another. 
 
 The imagination that a man can distinguish and sepa- 
 rate effects of grace from those of nature, or still more, 
 that he can beget the former within himself, is fanati- 
 cism ; for we cannot recognise a supersensible object by 
 any criterion, much less exert any influence upon it, so 
 as to draw it down to us, although unquestionably there 
 are sometimes emotions in the mind tending to morality, 
 which we cannot explain to ourselves nor account for, 
 and with regard to which our ignorance must confess 
 that " the wind bloiueth where it lisieth, hut that we knotv 
 not" 8fc. To pretend to detect celestial influences within, 
 is a kind of phrcnzy, in which there may be method (be- 
 cause these imagined inward revelations are attached to 
 ethical ideas, i. e. go hand in hand with representations 
 of pure reason), but which must notwithstanding be re- 
 probated as a self-deception hurtful to religion. To be- 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 233 
 
 lieve that there may be effects of grace — nay, that there 
 must perhaps be such, in order to eke out the shortcoming 
 of our imperfect ethical exertions, is all that can be said 
 about the matter. We are, howevei', utterly unable to 
 ascertain anything whatever touching their criteria, and 
 still less to co-operate toward their production. 
 
 The imagination that we can by religious rites accom- 
 plish anything touching our forensic justification in the 
 sight of God, constitutes religious superstition ; while, 
 again, the imagination that this justification can be 
 achieved by establishing a hidden intercourse and com- 
 munion with God, constitutes religious fanaticism. It 
 is a superstitious delusion to suppose we can become ac- 
 cepted with the Almighty by performing actions that any 
 one may do, without thereby becoming morally good. 
 And the rehearsal of statutable creeds, the observance of 
 rituals of form and show, &c. &c. are denominated super- 
 stitions, because physical not ethical means are adopted 
 to effect what stands (viz. themoral good) in no connection 
 with the physical system. Farther, a delusion is fana- 
 tical, when the mean had recourse to, is neither physical 
 nor ethical, but supersensible, i. e. quite above and be- 
 yond the power of man, to say nothing of the unattain- 
 ableness of an end^ extant only in the realms of the supi-a- 
 sensible ; for this sense of an immediate presence of the 
 Deity, and the distinguishing betwixt such sense and every 
 other, even the moral sense, would import a susceptibility 
 for intuitions, man's nature is unfitted for. The supersti- 
 tious delusion contains a mean^ fitted in many cases for 
 counteracting the impediments opposed by the sensory to 
 sentiments acceptable to God, and is consequently to that 
 extent, allied and akin to reason, and only objectionable 
 
234 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 from this accidental circumstance, that what is but a 
 mean, is regarded as the immediate object of God's com- 
 placency. Howbeit the fanatical delusion is the death of 
 moral reason, apart from which last, neither religion nor 
 morality, both which rest on principles, can be supported. 
 The Principle latent in Faith Ecclesiastical, guarding, 
 preventing, and eventually extirpating all delusions in 
 religion, is therefore this, viz. that over and above the 
 statute-articles of creed, whicli the Church-Faith cannot 
 as yet dispense with, this last must contain an inwrapt 
 germ, whereby it is continually urged to forth-form itself 
 into the pure religion of a moral life, which proper and 
 last end once gained — every other religion may thencefor- 
 Avard be discarded. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 OF PRIESTDOM,* ?. <?. SACERDOTAL DESPOTISM : AN ORDEIl «)l 
 THINGS BASED UPON THE FALSE WORSHIP OF THE (JOOD 
 PRINCIPLE. 
 
 The worship of mighty invisible beings first arose from 
 helpless man's consciousness of his own weakness, and 
 
 * Tins term (Pfaffenthdm, which may also be rendered PorEuv 
 or Pai'istuy, Til), denotirii^ the authority of a spiritual father {-raira), 
 suggests the still farther idea of sjiiritual tyranny, and does consequently 
 carry with it a certain amount of blame. This despotic sway pervades 
 more or less every church, however unassuming and pojjular its preten- 
 sions. Although I use the word, I do not mean, cither here or in the 
 text, to throw any despite ui)on the very various sects whom I contrast. 
 All those various modifications of belief are entitled to cquol respect, so 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 235 
 
 was literally extorted by the fear that naturally springs 
 from acknowledged imbecility. Hence* religion was not 
 first, but rather a dread of demons led the way, until at 
 length this slavish god-, hero-, or spirit-worship, receiving 
 an official and established shape, consolidated itself into 
 a TEMPLAR SERVICE : this last again, concurring with the 
 moral march of the human understanding, did by degrees 
 transform itself into a church-worship. Both church 
 and temple rise upon faith historical : until now at length, 
 in these latter days, it has been begun to be perceived 
 that the historical belief was but of provisional use, being 
 in fact only a symbolic exhibition, auxiliary to the spread 
 of a pure morally religious faith. 
 
 Betwixt a Tungusine Shaman — and a European Pre- 
 late domineering it at once over both State and Church, 
 there is no doubt a most enormous gap ; or if, instead of 
 the heads and leaders of the party, an example be prefer- 
 red from the common herd, then it still holds equally 
 true, that from the rude, rough Wogulite, who, day by 
 day, as he rises from his couch, places a bear's paw on his 
 pate, and ejaculates, " from this sudden death, Good 
 Bear! deliver me," up to the supra-subtile puritan or 
 sublimated independent in Connecticut, there obtains a 
 most portentous distance in the fashion, but none what- 
 ever in the principles, of their belief: as for their prin- 
 ciple, both belong to one and the same class, viz. the class of 
 those, who place the worship of the Deity in those outward 
 rites that cannot morally amend our species ; such as the 
 
 far forth as they are attempts of us poor mortals to realize a kingdom of 
 God on earth ; but then they are all open to the same objection, viz. 
 that they give out some particular visible transcript of that idea for tiie 
 thing itself. 
 
2Siy OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WOUSIIIP OF GOU 
 
 belief in sundry statutable dogmas, and the observance 
 of arbitrary ceremonies of form and show. Those only 
 who make their worship of the Supreme Being consist in 
 having and upholding the sentiments of a walk and con- 
 versation morally acceptable to God, are thereby widely 
 separated and distinguished from the former class ; inas- 
 much as they have made a transit to a principle totally 
 diverse from, and iucomputably advanced above, the other, 
 viz. a principle whereby they profess themselves members 
 of the one invisible church, containing within its pale all 
 the honest-minded, and whereof the inward essential pro- 
 perty is such, as to render it alone, the True Church Uni- 
 versal. 
 
 To bias the unseen power that governs the world to 
 their own private advantage, is a design that all spurious 
 worshippers aim at accomplishing; but then, how this un- 
 known being is to be propitiated, is a point concerning 
 which they differ. When this Supreme is figured as en- 
 dowed with will and understanding, then are all the ex- 
 ertions of mankind directed towards propitiating so mighty 
 an agent, on whose will depend their lot and destiny in 
 life; and for this purpose different and contrary modes 
 may appear at different times and in diverse countries 
 the more eligible. Should, however, the governor of the 
 physical system be deemed a moral person, then is it self- 
 evident at once to every human understanding, that the 
 only condition under which we can recommend ourselves 
 to his favour, is the performance of good moral conduct, 
 at least where such correct and irreproachable deportment 
 springs from purity of sentiment, as its subjective principle 
 and wellspring within. Howbeit, fancy can very easily 
 depicture to us, that the Supreme Being may perchance 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 23T 
 
 choose to be served and worshipped, in some yet other 
 manner, not patent to or cognizable by reason, namely, by 
 such actions as, though in themselves quite unrelated to 
 morality, are perhaps commanded by him, or otherwise 
 are, it may be, spontaneously undertaken by ourselves, in 
 order more vividly to demonstrate our subjection to his 
 will : in either of which events, those actions — whether 
 optional or imperative — would, when systematically ar- 
 ranged into one entire whole, constitute the materials of 
 a WORSHIP of the Godhead. Again, upon the hypothesis, 
 that the ethic and non-ethical services are to be conjoined, 
 then must either both lines of worship be figured as di- 
 rectly rendering us acceptable to God, or the one must 
 be deemed a mean or vehicle toward the other, which last 
 alone, will then be the proper acceptable worship. That 
 the ethical worship of the Deity {officium liherum) is im- 
 mediately well-pleasing in his sight, is manifest of itself; 
 but then morality would cease to be the supreme condi- 
 tion of God's complacency in our race (which, however, 
 is of the very essence of our idea of morality), whenever 
 mercenai-y hireling services come to be regarded as able 
 by themselves alone, to recommend us to the favour of the 
 Almighty. Should a mechanic non-ethical worship be 
 thus exalted, then could no one tell, wlien positive and 
 moral precepts clash, which were to be preferred before 
 the other ; and in any given collision of ethic and alleged 
 divine behests, the judgment of mankind must remain 
 suspended, as to which course of action, duty wovild de- 
 mand. Wherefore actions that in themselves are void of 
 moral worth, can only be admitted into religion with this 
 proviso, that they are found means of forwarding that 
 which in other actions is immediately and uncondition- 
 
r338 OF THE true and false worship of cod 
 
 ately good, i. e. we may hold them jiot displeasing to God, 
 so far forth as they are instrumental in aiding our per- 
 formance of his moral worship. 
 
 Whoever imagines that he can employ actions devoid 
 in themselves of moral worth, as a mean fitted for pro- 
 curing the Divine favour, and so of attaining the realiza- 
 tion of his wishes, besots himself with the belief that he 
 has possessed himself of an art, by means of merely na- 
 tural causes to bring about preternatural effects : essays 
 in this kind usually go by the name of sorcery. But 
 as the term Sorcerer usually conveys the accessory notion 
 of intercourse with the Evil One, whereas the attempts 
 now under consideration proceed upon a mistaken fancy, 
 and originate from good moral designs ; it will be advis- 
 able to drop the above expression, and use in its stead the 
 more familiar phrase of Fetiche-making, or Feticism.§ A 
 preternatural effect wrought by man would be such an 
 event as the fetiche-maker fancies he can cause to come to 
 pass by acting upon the Almighty, and using God as a 
 means to realise those ends which lie alike beyond the 
 strength of man's physical economy and the insight of his 
 understanding, a delusion that is in its A'ery conception 
 preposterous and absurd. 
 
 If man, over and above the active sentiment of ethic 
 conduct (which can alone make him acceptable to God), 
 does, by the use of certain forms, seek to make himself 
 worthy of having his ethic weakness strengthened and sup- 
 
 § Translator's Note. Gcrmanicc, fetischdienst, signifying iii:a- 
 THENisM. The won! Fctitso is said to be ol' Portuguese origin, ami niosi 
 frequently applied to the superstitious rites of the African Negroes. 'I'la 
 meaning in the text therefore is — as Sorcery with respect to the Devi/, so 
 Fcticism in regard of the Deity. 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 239 
 
 plied by supernatural power, and does for tliis end adopt 
 observances tending to advance that ethic sentiment, in or- 
 der thereby to make himself susceptible of being helped on 
 toward the attainment of the object of his good hopes ; 
 then does he reckon, no doubt, on some preternatural sup- 
 ply, not, however, effectuated by him (by acting upon the 
 Deity), only received — an eking out of his natural inabi- 
 lity which he only hopes for, but does not attempt to con- 
 jure up. But if he has recourse to actions that do in 
 themselves, so far as we can see, savour nothing of mo- 
 rality, in the imagination that such ceremonials will serve 
 as a mean, or even be the condition of his obtaining from 
 God the immediate accomplishment of his wishes, then 
 does he proceed upon the practical delusion, that although 
 for this preternatural benefit he is qualified neither by any 
 physical faculty, nor yet by any moral susceptibility, he 
 can nevertheless bring about this supernatural aid by a 
 common physical operation, quite unconnected with mo- 
 rality, and that may be performed indifferently by the 
 worst or the best of our race ; for when any one fancies 
 he can work upon the preternatural by using formulas of 
 invocation, confessions of church-creeds, and observing 
 rites ecclesiastical, then is he scarcely to be distinguished 
 from those who have recourse to sorcerous incantations, 
 when he thus attempts magically to possess himself of as- 
 sistance from above. No human understanding can frame 
 to itself any notion of a connection or law of synthesis ob- 
 taining betwixt a mere bodily act and a morally-working 
 cause, according to which causal-nexus the latter can be 
 so regulated and determined as to produce the effects aim- 
 ed at by the former. 
 
 Wherefore, Avhoever declares the observation of statu- 
 
240 OF THE TRLE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 tary laws, cognisable only by revelation, a necessary ele- 
 ment of religion, and, considering them not merely as a 
 mean toward forwarding the gi'owth of moral sentiments, 
 gives them out as the objective condition of our becoming 
 acceptable to God, and postpones to this historical belief 
 our due exertions after an amended life ; he it is that 
 converts the woi-ship of God into Feticism, and deals 
 out a superstition utterly subversive of all true religion. 
 The former, being only hypothetically well-pleasing to 
 the Deity, must at all times be subordinated to that mo- 
 ral righteousness which in every nation makes and has 
 made its worker accepted with God. Of such extreme 
 moment is the order and arrangement in which these two 
 good principles are combined. In duly prizing tliis 
 weighty distinction consists the true moral marcli ajid 
 insight of an enlightened understanding; and only by 
 rigidly subordinating the elements revealed, to the a priori 
 laws authenticated by reason, does the worship of God 
 begin to wear the aspect of a free, and consequently a 
 MORAL service. Is the above distinction overlooked, 
 then is there substituted in room of the Freedom of the 
 Children of God, the yoke of a statutable law ; and this, 
 because it comes hand in hand with an unconditioned 
 necessitation to believe in what can only be histori- 
 cally known, is a far heavier yokef for the conscientious 
 
 •f " That yoke is gentle and that burden I'lght^^ where the duty imposed 
 by it on us arises from our own legislative reason. Such a command- 
 ment is willingly executed. Of this kind are only tlie moral laws, qua 
 divine behests ; and of these alone could the Founder of the first pure 
 church say, ^'' His commandments arc not grievous.'^ Jle means, ^'■thci/aif 
 not irhsomc" because every one perceives the necessity of obeying tlieni, 
 and is also fully aware that no authority is thereby usurjK-d. On the 
 other hand, dcspotical ordonnancei (not originated by reason), even al- 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 241 
 
 than any load of ordained ceremonials. With respect to 
 these last, it is plainly quite enough that they be perform- 
 ed; and no one need profess, either inwardly or outwardly, 
 belief in the rites, as ordinances of divine appointment. 
 Of all the various possible forms of superstition, ecclesi- 
 astical extortion of beliefs and confessions, is by far the 
 most vexatious ; for by this oppression conscience is sin- 
 gularly violated. 
 
 Priestdom {Papistry) obtains wherever a mal-confor- 
 mation of the church polity has introduced feticism; 
 which worship of a fetiche-god is always to be met with 
 whenever statute-laws of the church, formulas of faith, 
 and ceremonial observances, not principles of morality, 
 constitute the groundwork and essentials of the worship. 
 Some churches there are where the fetiche belief is so me- 
 chanical and abundant as almost to supplant both mora- 
 lity and religion, and which do, therefore, approach very 
 near to unmixed paganism. But be the sacerdotal sta- 
 tutes to which obedience is demanded few or many, still, 
 whenever the free homage due to the moral law is not first 
 and supreme, then a servile worship, based on a fetiche 
 creed, prevails. By this last, the multitude are governed, 
 and, through obedience extorted by the church (not ren- 
 dered to religion), stand bereft of all mental and moral 
 
 though intended for our good, whereof the rationale and use is unknown, 
 are, so to speak, pests that no one can away with ; and yet, in another 
 point of view, actions imperatively ordained by the moral law are just 
 those mankind experience the greatest difficulty in perforniing ; and in 
 exchange for these, not unfrequently undergo the most tiresome and 
 vexatious rites of superstition, as if it were possible that such superero- 
 gatory and worthless castigations could pass current in room of a moral 
 life. 
 
 S 
 
242 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 freedom. The constitution of such a church may be hier- 
 archical or democratical ; that is a matter of utter indif- 
 ference, and concerns only the mode of its organization. 
 The administration is, under every form of fetiche creed, 
 out and out despotic ; and wherever statute articles of be- 
 lief are interwoven with the constitutional charters of the 
 church, there the clergy have usurped the sway, and 
 domineer. They think to trample on the understandings 
 of their fellows, and even by degrees attempt to get rid 
 of biblical learning : for, being the alone patenteed in- 
 terpreters and expounders of the will of the Unseen Law- 
 giver, to them belongs exclusively the right of dealing out 
 the rules of the faith ; whence, armed with this authority, 
 they fancy they have not to convince, but only to com- 
 mand. Again, since beyond churchmen all else are 
 LAICS (the sovereign head of the realm not excepted), it is 
 plain, that in the long run the church lords it over the 
 state, not necessarily by force or violence, but partly by 
 compressing the minds, partly by air-drawn visions of 
 the benefits accruing to the state, from those habits of blind 
 obedience, to which spiritual discipline moulds and biases 
 even the very thoughts of the populace. But here long 
 and inveterate customs of hypocrisy insensibly undermine 
 the honesty and independence of the subject. Even his 
 civil duties are tainted, by being rendered with eye-service, 
 and thus, like all false principles whatsoever, the spu- 
 rious church-worship ends by bringing forth the very '— 
 trary of what it professed to aim at. 
 
 All these evils are the inevitable consequence of invert- 
 
UNDER THE SVVAVT OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 243 
 
 ing and deranging tlie due order obtaining betwixt tlic 
 principles of the several religious faiths, viz. whether the 
 principles of pure rational religion or those of revealed re- 
 ligion were, as supreme conditions, to be allowed the so- 
 vereign and highest place. It is most equitable to assume, 
 that not merely the wise or the disputer of this world, 
 is called to be illuminated touching the nature of his 
 true bliss : for of this believing insight the whole race of 
 man are destined to be capable, and even the foolish things 
 of this world — the imlettered, the most circumscribed by 
 limited ideas — may advance a claim to be thus taught and 
 inwardly conA^inced. For the behoof of those last, a po- 
 pular historic creed seems pre-eminently adapted, espe- 
 cially when all the notions needed for its comprehension 
 are quite anthropological, and address themselves directly 
 to the sensory. Nothing can be more easily spread than 
 a simple story thus sensuously clothed ; it admits of being 
 constantly discoursed of and imparted, together with the 
 verbal formulas of its mysteries, wherewith it is not ab- 
 solutely necessary that the speaker connect any sense. 
 How repeatedly do we not perceive statements that ac- 
 company a great and general interest acquiring a ready 
 iind almost universal reception ; and then, when the his- 
 iory is supported by an ancient document, long acknow- 
 ledged to be authentic, what deep roots must not the be- 
 lief In Its truths have struck. These various concurring 
 circumstances render such a faith as Is the Christian, 
 peculiarly on a level with the most ordinary and common 
 apprehension. Farther, although neither the annunciation 
 of those events, nor the belief In rules of life thereon 
 based, may have been originally intended for, or address- 
 ed to, the learned and noble, still they are not upon that 
 
244 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WOUSHIT OF GOD 
 
 account excluded, much less devoid of interest, to look 
 into the transactions recorded. But then so many doubts 
 arise, now touching their truth, arum touching their mean- 
 ing, that it plainly is the most absurd course in the world 
 to lay down, as the supreme condition of saving and 
 universal faith, a historic creed, open to so many contro- 
 versies, and to learned and scientific doubts most honestly 
 urged and as sincerely felt. Moreover, there is a practi- 
 cal knowledge based entirely upon reason, needing no his- 
 toric authentication, lying so near every one, even the 
 most simple, that it looks as had it been written in detail 
 on the tablets of his heart : a practical knowledge, I say, 
 of a law that cannot be named without commanding uni- 
 A'ersal assent to its authority, and which is ushered into 
 every one's soul with the immediate consciousness of its 
 unconditioned obligatory force. This practical knowledge 
 is besides sufficient of itself to guide to a belief in God ; or 
 should this belief have been suggested aliunde, then it fixes 
 and defines our idea of him as a moral lawgiver ; thus fur- 
 nishing a religion that is at once comprehensible by all, 
 and that puts on all the greatest dignity and honour that 
 can possibly be represented : nay, the above-mentioned 
 practical knowledge issues so naturally in this religion, 
 that it admits of being questioned Socratically out of every 
 person's understanding, although he had never heard of 
 it before. It is consequently not merely expedient to com- 
 mence with this obvious truth, and to make the historical 
 belief wherewith it is so much in harmony follow only as 
 an accessory ; but is even a very duty to regard those no- 
 tices, the birthright of every human reason, as the prin- 
 cipal and supreme index, pointing out the only legitimate 
 and infallible way, through which we can become partak- 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 245 
 
 ers of whatever bliss, a historical belief may promise : for, 
 ill truth, we can allow a narrated creed to pass validly cur- 
 rent, to such extent only, as the former warrants; where- 
 as, whenever this search into its inner texture and con- 
 tents has been warily gone about, then is the ethical 
 BELIEVER always left fully open to make a transit to so 
 much of THE HISTORICAL BELIEF as lie may find condu- 
 cive to the quickening and enlivening of his pure moral 
 and religious sentiments, in which event alone can such 
 belief possess any inward moral worth, as it is then free, 
 and unextcrted by any threat. 
 
 There is yet another question which may be asked, 
 Avhether the lectures publicly delivered in a church ought 
 mainly to set forth doctrines of godliness, or those of 
 pure VIRTUE? The former term, godliness, is, perhaps, the 
 only one still used that can convey, even in part, the mean- 
 ing of the foreign term religio. 
 
 Godliness may be figured as containing under it two 
 different mental moods in regard of our relation to the 
 Deity. Fear of God is such a cast of thinking as obtains 
 when we observe God's Laws as subjects in his realm, 
 i. e. from the awe of duty. Love of God, on the other 
 hand, obtains then, when we offer him the obedience of 
 dutiful children, i. e. fiom a free and ingenuous appro- 
 bation taken in his law. Either frame of mind is conse- 
 quently, above and beyond the bare moral determination, 
 accompanied by the attendant idea of a supersensible 
 Being, invested with such attributes as may be needed 
 for placing within our reach that Sovereign Good aimed 
 at by a moral mind, and eking out our inability to realise 
 and attain it. This Person's nature does, whenever at- 
 tempted to be fixed by any predicate, save those imrae- 
 
246 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSUIP OF GOD 
 
 diately arising out of the moral relation perceived to ob- 
 tain betwixt our idea of Him and our duty, stand always 
 in tlie greatest hazard of being anthropomorphously dis- 
 torted, and so consequently of endangering, displacing, and 
 even supplanting to that extent our moral sentiments. Ac- 
 cordingly we saw in the Critiques that this idea could not 
 be received, as of objective validity, by pure speculative 
 Reason, and that its origin, and still more its main use, 
 was grounded entirely on the self-begotten and self-up- 
 holding law of our ethical economy. This being the stale 
 of matters, what, it will naturally be asked, ought to con- 
 stitute the first rudiments of instruction when addressing 
 the young, or when prelecting from the pulpit ? Ought 
 VIRTUE to be explained before godliness ? or godliness 
 in preference to, and perhaps without even so much as 
 once mentioning, virtue ? Both go of necessity hand-in- 
 hand together; but a necessary conjunction of this sort 
 can only obtain where the one is the end, the other no 
 more than a mean. Again, the whole theory of virtue has 
 its complete and entire subsistence by itself, dispensing 
 even with the Idea God ; whereas tenets of godliness deal 
 only with this idea, so far forth as it serves to depicture 
 to us how the grand end of morality, viz. the Sovereign 
 Good, is to be gained. Hence it is manifest that godli- 
 ness cannot by itself be the aim and end of morality, 
 but can only serve as a mean, strengthening mankind's 
 honest-mindedness, by ascertaining and warranting to 
 him every good, even holiness, for which his natural ef- 
 forts might be insufficient. The Idea virtue, on the con- 
 trary, is exsculpted, in most prominent relief, on every 
 human soul. Each man bears it fully about within, how- 
 ever it may for a while be partially submerged ; nor does 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 247 
 
 it need, like the religious Idea, to be arrived at through 
 any chain of ratiocination. In the august magnificence 
 of its purity, arousing consciousness forthwith to the dis- 
 covery of an otherwise quite unsuspected energy, em- 
 powering man to smite down and overthrow the greatest 
 possible obstacles within ; in the dignity of his nature 
 which mankind has to uphold inviolate, in order to reach 
 that moral destination after which he strives ; in this re- 
 cognition of his excellency and purity, there does, I say, 
 lie something so soul-exalting, yea heavenwards wafting, 
 placing mankind as it were even in the presence of the Deity, 
 who merely by his holiness and legislative guardianship of 
 virtue is an object of adoration, that every man, even though 
 as yet far removed from giving this idea any motive-pur- 
 chase on his maxims, gladly entertains it in his thoughts, 
 as it then fully reveals to him, and stamps on him, the 
 feeling of the original nobility and state of his rank. How 
 different are the inward phenomena when this order is in- 
 verted. The idea of a supreme governor, imposing upon 
 us duties by his law, lies primordially at an incomputable 
 distance, and is observed, when we set out with it, to damp 
 and dash man's courage — which, however, is of the very 
 essence of all virtue — and the godliness is exposed to the 
 risk of sliding into an abject, servile, and adulatory sub- 
 mission to the will of a despot. The energetic valour 
 aroused, set free, and disengaged by virtue, encouraging 
 and enabling mankind to trust confidently to his own re- 
 sources, is likewise capable of becoming fortified and made 
 inexpugnably secure when followed up by a doctrine of 
 expurgation, announcing an amnesty for that in past trans- 
 gressions, beyond man's power to undo or counteract ; 
 whereas even here, Avere this ethical order transposed, then 
 
248 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 must inevitably, doubt as to appropriation of the grace, un- 
 nerve and break the spirits : abortive expiations to make 
 what has been done undone then creep in ; doctrines of our 
 utter inability to perform of ourselves, any spontaneous 
 ingenuous good, follow in their train ; these, by begetting 
 anxious and uneasy apprehensions touching his possible 
 lapse backwards into evil, transplant the unhappy sufferer 
 into a whining, whimpering, passive moral state, inca- 
 pable of aiming at anything either great or good — only 
 of sighing after it with prayers or vows. In founding 
 and uprearing a moral character, everything depends on 
 the leading and dominant idea whereunto everything else 
 must be subordinated. When to the worship of God is 
 allotted the foremost place to which virtue is postponed, 
 then is such deity an idol ; for God is then an agent not 
 to be won by good moi-al deportment executed in the world, 
 but one whose approbation is to be gained by invoca- 
 tions and adulatoiy addresses : religion is now idolatry. 
 Godliness can, therefore, never be a surrogatiim of virtue, 
 assisting us to dispense with it. Godliness can only be its 
 plenary consummation, crowning it with the hope of that 
 ultimate success, which will one day put wholly within 
 our grasp, the chief and last end of all our moral labours. 
 
 The various kinds of faith prevalent among diverse nations, 
 impart to them by degrees certain peculiar characteristic feat- 
 ures, which come in the sequel to be regarded as derived from 
 the localities of the soil or climate, or from the physical tem- 
 perament of the race. Thus Judaism being designed to keep 
 separate the family of Abraham, isolating them by every spe- 
 cies of rite and ceremonial from their neighbours, entailed upon 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 249 
 
 the inhabitants of Palestine the well-known charge of a misan- 
 thropic hatred of the whole human race. Mahometanism is 
 characterized by the haughtiness it instils into the Moslem, — 
 a PRIDE begotten by its looking for its evidences, not to mi- 
 racles, but by finding the confirmation of its belief in its victo- 
 rious subjection of many nations ; and this highmindedness is 
 sustained by devotional exercises of a warlike and lofty-spirited 
 turn. The Hindu persuasions have impressed upon the East 
 a character of pusillanimity, from causes the exact contrary of 
 those just mentioned. — Assuredly the Christian faith is not 
 to blame if it sometimes has given birth to characters chargeable 
 with the like fault. These have arisen from the faulty mode in 
 which it has been made to tell upon the mind. The vices of a 
 false and abject humility have been superinduced upon primitive 
 Christianity, through the mistaken views of many of its most 
 zealous well-wishers ; who, commencing with the doctrine of 
 mankind's corruption, despair of and cut short the mind's 
 elastic and undecaying energies for virtue : thus placing the 
 whole of religion in a principle of pietism, by which I mean a 
 principle o? passive resignation, where all moral good is expect- 
 ed from above. By these portentous doctrines, mankind stand 
 bereaved of all self-confidence and independence : fretted with 
 perpetual anxiety, they sigh and whine after preternatural as- 
 sistance ; and do, even in this very self-abnegation (which is not 
 humility), think they possess a mean whereby to recommend 
 themselves to the favour of the Deity. The outward expression, 
 however, of pietism and bigotism (i. e. spurious devotion), does 
 at all times amply betray the abjectness of the sentiment 
 w^ithin. 
 
 This singular phenomenon, that the second of those classes 
 (an ignorant, though shrewd race) should pride themselves upon 
 their faith, may possibly be in part deduced from the imagination 
 of its founder, that he was the grand instrument of reviving the 
 belief in the unity of the Godhead, which image-worship had at 
 that time nearly blotted from the earth. If this merit can be 
 
250 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 duly ascribed to Mohammed, then doubtless may his followers 
 feel themselves entitled to claim the ascendant in civilization, as 
 they first freed the world from the superstition of the day ; and 
 became the first truly successful iconoclasts, by emancipating 
 the nations they overran from the shackles of Polytheism. As 
 for that characteristic of the fourth class, which rises upon mis- 
 understood humility, this ought to be observed ; the estimation 
 of our moral worth, intended to prune the overgrowths of self- 
 conceit, should not issue in self-abhorrence, but ought rather to 
 inspire a more firm determination to press after the holiness ob- 
 jected to our mental vision by the law, by so cultivating our con- 
 fided talent, as to bring forth fruits worthy of the exalted dignity 
 and high destination of our being. But then, unfortunately, vir- 
 tue has been confounded with arrogance, and its very name 
 banished as suspicious into the realms of heathenism. Virtue, 
 together with its main constituent valour, has thus been for- 
 ced to yield place to crouching superstition aud craven devo- 
 teeism. Bigotry or false devotion is rested upon the custom 
 of placing the usages of piety, not in those moral actions that 
 make mankind accepted with his Judge, but in exercises of re- 
 verential homage, whereby the devotee fancies he is immediate- 
 ly occupied with God himself. Such worship is plainly abortive 
 {opus operatum), although it adds to superstition the fanatical 
 dream of alleged supersensible feelings of the celestial. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 OF THE CLUE WHEREBY CONSCIENCE CAN TIIKKAD EVEHY 
 POSSIBLE LABYRINTH OF FAITH ECCLESIASTICAL. 
 
 The queytiou here is not, " How conscience ought 
 TO BE GUIDED ?" for CoHsciencc is its own General and 
 Leader ; it is therefore enoucrh that each man liavc one. 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PEINCIPLE. 251 
 
 What we want to know is, how conscience can be her own 
 Ariadne, and disentangle herself from the mazes even of 
 the most ravelled and complicated casuistical theology. 
 
 Conscientiousness is a state of consciousness, which 
 to possess is at all times our incumbent duty. But how 
 is this to be figured as possible ? The consciousness of 
 any representation — be it what it may — is needed only for 
 logical purposes ; but if consciousness is needed condi- 
 tionally only for the behoof of mating our perceptions 
 clearer or more perspicuous, then would it seem that no 
 state or modification of consciousness can be stated as an 
 unconditioned duty. 
 
 Here is an ethical proposition that stands in need of no 
 
 proof: NO ACTION MAY AT ANY TIME BE HAZARDED ON 
 THE UNCERTAINTY THAT PERCHANCE IT MAY NOT BE 
 
 WRONG {Qifod dubifas, nefeceris f PUn.). Hence the con- 
 sciousNESSs, that any action I am about to perform is 
 RIGHT, is in itself a most immediate and imperative duty. 
 What actions are right, — what wrong, — is a matter for 
 the understanding, not for conscience. It certainly is not 
 absolutely necessary for any one to know, touching all 
 possible actions, whether they be right or wrong. But 
 with regard to any given action which I am really about 
 to perform, I must not only be of opinion, but must be 
 absolutely certain, that it is right ; and this is a postulate 
 conscience opposes to Jesuitical Prohabilism, which has 
 for its foothold this position, that the bare opinion, that 
 an action may possibly not be wrong, furnishes sufficient 
 warrant for performing it. Conscience might be thus 
 otherwise defined, — it is our self-judging moral un- 
 derstanding ; — only this definition would, I fear, stand 
 greatly in need of a preliminary clearing up of the con- 
 
252 or THE TRUK AKD TALSK WORSHIP OV GOD 
 
 ceptions it involves. Conscience does not sit in judgment 
 on actions, so as to decide whether they are cases falling 
 under the moral law, or beyond it ; that is determined by 
 reason, so far forth as this last is subjectively-practical 
 (hence the casus conscientice, and indeed the whole of ca- 
 suistry constitute, if I may so speak, a dialectic of con- 
 science) ; whereas, in the former event, reason passes sen- 
 tence on itself, to know if, with all diligence, it have sifted 
 and tested the moral worth or unworth of certain acts ; 
 and cites each individual man as conclusive evidence, for 
 or against himself, that such approbatory or reprobating 
 decree, has been duly pronounced, or has unduly been 
 omitted. 
 
 Let us take as an example an official of the Inquisi- 
 tion, who has imbibed the inveterate opinion that his 
 creed is the alone true, and who would willingly, in con- 
 sequence of this belief, suiFer martyrdom for its sake. 
 Let there be brought before this ecclesiastic judge an un- 
 offending citizen, who has been denounced as a heretic, 
 and is now arraigned at his bar of tlie capital crime of mis- 
 belief ; then I raise this query, whether or not he who 
 dooms his neighbour to the pains of death, can be said to 
 have acted conformably to conscience {confessedly erroneous 
 though it he) ; or whether he is not to be charged with 
 AN utter want of CONSCIENTIOUSNESS, and that, too, 
 whether he have so acted, knowing his sentence to be un- 
 just, or in the mistaken supposition that this judicial step 
 was right. In effect, it should seem that we might confi- 
 dently toss the defiance in his face ; that in such a case as 
 the one now supposed, he could not but know that Ite 
 acted wrong, in as much as it is impossible for any man 
 altogether to escape some inward misgiving, vr-hen pro- 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD rilINCiri,E, 253 
 
 noimciiig the portentous warrant for an auto clafe, lest pcr- 
 adventure his judgment prove utterly iniquitous. Doubt- 
 less the Grand Inquisitor is fully persuaded that a super- 
 natural revelation of the Divine will — compellite intrare — 
 permits him, or, it may be, even ordains him, to extirpate, 
 root and branch; the infidelity of the incredulous, and to 
 raze all unbelievers from the face of the earth. But was 
 he then so perfectly assured that the above formula was a 
 revelation, and so convinced of the accuracy of the inter- 
 pretation as is absolutely indispensable, before Ave can 
 hold any one justified in passing sentence of capital con- 
 demnation on his fellow-men ? That to put any one to 
 death on account of his opinions in religion is a point of 
 high injustice, is obvious to every one ; unless, indeed — 
 to grant the very uttermost concession — the divine will 
 have in a special extraordinary revelation ordained it other- 
 wise ; farther, that God ever did, at any time, communi- 
 cate this dreadfully appalling declaration of his will, rests 
 merely on historical documents, and is, therefore, never 
 apodictically certain. This alleged revelation has only been 
 received from, and interpreted by, his fellow-men ; or did 
 any one even suppose that he got such a communication 
 immediately from God himself, as Abraham did, to lead 
 his son like a sheep to the slaughter, still, the possibility 
 would remain, that in all this some latent error had una- 
 wares crept in ; and should there be room for any such 
 possible mistake, then would he hazard an act that might 
 be extremely unjust. But thus to act at random, and in the 
 dark, is of the very essence of unconscientiousness. Again, 
 every one thus behaves, who thinks to perform acts, other- 
 wise clearly immoral, upon the fancied ground of some 
 authority contained, it may be, in a history or a vision. 
 

 254- OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 These last may possibly be tainted by mistake;§ and if this 
 be indeed so, then does it bewray the man's inward want 
 of conscientiousness when he obeys a historical belief; 
 for whoso blindly hazards the violation of one of the known 
 offices of humanity, upon the imagined probability that 
 perchance he may not do wrong, becomes thereby — con- 
 science being judge — a wrong-doer. Furthermore, upon 
 the hypothesis that an action commanded by such an al- 
 leged positive revealed law, is in itself perfectly allow- 
 ed, then still I desire to know if clerical superiors and 
 teachers can venture to impose upon the people, as arti- 
 cles of belief, their own opinions and convictions ; and 
 that, too, upon the pain of certain civil disabilities. The 
 conviction in question can be grounded upon no other than 
 historic foundations ; and the populace cannot but per- 
 ceive, if they give the subject the most slender and cur- 
 sory examination, what abundant sources there are for 
 error, either in the story or in the classic exposition of 
 the text. The judgment of the unlettered can conse- 
 quently be no other than problematic ; and yet the clergy- 
 man would constrain his flock to confess (at least inward- 
 ly) as confidently as they believe in God, i. e. to profess, 
 as it were, in the presence of the Almighty, what they 
 cannot certainly know. Thus some ecclesiastics compel 
 their half-learned countrymen to believe in the institution 
 of one day in seven as a constituent element of religion 
 and godliness, immediately ordained by God himself, for 
 the public periodic celebration of his worship ; or wring 
 
 § Beyond which, all science, and therefore elhical science, is exalted. 
 There are only four sciences, logic, mathematics, physics, and ethics: 
 before the demonstrated truths of these « priori knowledges, everv op- 
 posing obstacle must of necessity fall. Tr. 
 
 \ 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 255 
 
 from the flock a solemn confession of a mystery which 
 it cannot so much as comprehend. Clerical superiors 
 do, in these instances, themselves violate and bespot the 
 conscience, obtruding upon the unlettered sciolist a belief 
 in matters whereof they themselves never can become fully 
 certain ; and here they ought to take good heed what they 
 are about, as they it is, that will have to render an account 
 for all abuses springing from such feigned and fictitious 
 faith. Wherefore, there may be truth in the things be- 
 lieved, and yet there may be insincerity in the belief it- 
 self, i. e. want of conscientiousness in the confession de- 
 clared by the man to himself — an inward guile that is in 
 itself damnable. 
 
 Although, as it was remarked above, individuals who 
 have begun to awake to freedom f of cogitation, after hav- 
 
 f The phrase often used by sagacious politicians, " such a people are 
 not yet ripe for freedom,'''' is, I frankly admit, one with which I cannot 
 concur. The adscripti gleha are said to be thus immature ; and in the same 
 way we hear it strenuously contended that the great bulk of the people 
 are still unripe for freedom in ecclesiastical belief. Agreeably to this 
 hypothesis, no season of freedom ever can arrive. How can any one be- 
 come mature in freedom, unless, first of all, so placed that he can ripen 
 freely ? (the free use of our connate powers never can be harmoniously 
 and symmetrically developed till all clog and restraint are removed). The 
 first essays at freedom may no doubt be awkward, and a nation may for 
 a while, in consequence, find itself thrown into a more uncouth or even 
 dangerous condition than while it stood under the authority and guar- 
 dianship of another. Howbeit, no man ever can ripen into the full ma- 
 turity of reason, save by his own exertions ; to make which exertions, 
 he must be handed entirely over to his own freedom. I do not deny that 
 the exigency of particular circumstances may compel those invested 
 with authority to postpone, for a long season, the removal of domestic, 
 municipal, or ecclesiastic bonds. But to proceed upon the principle that 
 those subjected to their authority are unfit for freedom, is to usurp a pre- 
 rogative of Deity, who created mankind for and unto freedom. Ques- 
 tionless, it is much more convenient to lord it, both at home and abroad, 
 
256 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 ing long unconsciously slumbered under the yoke of a 
 belief (e. g. Protestants), do straightway deem themselves 
 ennobled, in proportion as their articles of belief are 
 scanty;" yet, singularly enough, they whose understandings 
 still lie dormant, cling to a very different principle of 
 safety. " Better believe too much than believe too 
 LITTLE," is here the adage ; for whatever is done beyond 
 and above what is duty, cannot in any CA'ent harm, but 
 may perchance do good. Upon this delusive dream, which 
 would make dishonesty the very spirit and soul of religi- 
 ous confessions, is based the well-known argumentum a 
 tuto, which obtains the more easy and extended currency, 
 because religion compensates for every fault, and hence 
 also for dishonesty in adopting it. If, says the sciolist, 
 what I profess to believe concerning the Godhead is cor- 
 rect, then have I precisely hit the very truth. Should, 
 on the other hand, the articles contain an error, still, as 
 there is nothing in them morally improper, then have I 
 merely assented to something superfluous and unneces- 
 sary, by all which I have no doubt molested, but certainly 
 not incriminated, myself. The peril arising out of the im- 
 probity of his profession — the lesion of conscience — 
 necessarily undergone, when that is declared in the pre- 
 sence of God to be certain, which mankind must never- 
 theless know not to be so constituted as to admit of being 
 affirmed with unconditioned certainty, are all overlooked 
 by this dishonest maxim, and indeed pass with the 
 hypocrite for nothing. The genuine safety-principle 
 of true religion is contrariwise as follows. Whatever is 
 
 over bouse, state, and cliuuli, where wo can — But llicn there is another 
 question — as to its justici:. 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. aST 
 
 a mean or condition of future bliss, unknown to naked 
 • reason, and promulgated singly by revelation, can strike 
 root in my conviction, just like any other history ; and so 
 far forth as it does not militate against morality, cannot 
 be either pronounced absolutely certain, nor yet rejected 
 as absolutely false. Besides leaving this point totally 
 undecided, I may unquestionably trust, that whatever of 
 salutary there may lie in the document, will stand me in 
 good stead, provided I do not by my moral short-coming 
 make myself unworthy of it. In this maxim, there is 
 real moral safety, viz. that conscience be not violated ; and 
 more cannot be demanded from mankind. There is, 
 moreover, the utmost danger and insecurity in that lauded 
 stratagem of expediency, whereby we think astutely to 
 evade any disadvantageous sequents that may spring from 
 unbelieving nonconformity. Thus tampering with either 
 party, we destroy our credit with both. 
 
 Were the author of a creed, or a doctor in theology, 
 or, generally, were any one, who professes inwardly to 
 himself his steadfast belief in tenets, as of divine revela- 
 tion ; were, I say, any such individual interrogated, if he 
 could, before the Searcher of his heart, protest that those 
 tenets are certainly true, I'enouncing his hope of every- 
 thing dear and holy, should they, in any event, turn out 
 to be false ; then must our opinion of human nature be 
 low and grovelling indeed, not to anticipate, that even the 
 boldest preacher of belief must tremble at the contempla- 
 tion 6f so portentous an alternative.f But if this be so 
 
 •f Whoever has the temerity to say, that he who refuses assent to a 
 historical statement, as a certain truth, must infallibly be dajined, 
 must be ready to invert the proposition, and to say in turn, I con- 
 
 VEKSELY AM WILLING TO BE DAMNED if what I UOW tell yOll is Up- 
 
 K, 
 
258 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 indeed, how can it consist with general conscientiousness 
 to urge vehemently an unlimited declaration of adherence 
 to those points of faith, and even to give out the reckless 
 temerity, that alone is able to utter such asseverations, as 
 in itself a duty, and, in fact, part of the worship of the 
 Deity. So violent an invasion of conscience bereaves 
 mankind of his freedom, which, however, is indispensably 
 needed for every moral act — (pre-eminently so when reli- 
 gious principles are to be adopted) — and does not even al- 
 low room for the good will that would cry. Lord, I be- 
 lieve; HELP thou mine UNBELIEF.f 
 
 true. Should there perchance be found any person, willing to emit this 
 dreadful declaration, then would I recommend the Persian proverb, as 
 suggesting the only fit mode of treating such a zealot. Has any one gone 
 ONCE to Mecca on a pilgrimage, then (says the eastern adage) is it high 
 time to quit the house in which he dwells. Has he been there twice, 
 quit the very street. But has he journeyed thither thrice, then abandon 
 the city, or even the very province, where he is to be found. 
 
 •f Sincerity ! thou Astraea ! who hast fled this earth, and betaken 
 thyself to heaven, by what means draw we thee down again, — thee ! the 
 indispensable groundwork of all conscientiousness, and so by necessary 
 consequence of all heart-felt religion. I admit — though I deem it mat- 
 ter of regret — that a frank absence of all reserve, which tells the whole 
 truth it knows, is not to be met with in human nature. Notwithstand- 
 ing, sincerity is what we are entitled to expect and to exact from all 
 (viz. that whatever is said, be honestly declared) ; and were there no 
 substratum in our inner man tending to this virtue, whereof the culture 
 only lies neglected, then would the human species become in their 
 own eyes an object of the deepest disgust and disdain. But this deside- 
 rated and invaluable frame of thinking is exposed to many assaults of 
 temptation, and costs many a sacrifice ; whence also it demands ethic 
 strength, i. c. virtue for its acquisition. Again, this virtue needs to be 
 planted and watered much earlier and more assiduously than any other ; 
 for when once the contrary bias to self-deceit has insinuated itself, and 
 contaminated the character, it is almost impossible aflerwards to eradi- 
 cate it. This being the case, just let us throw back an oyc on tiie edu- 
 cation given us in youth, especially in what relates to religion, or rather, 
 to speak more correctly, in what relates to points of faith. Here faith- 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 259 
 
 GENERAL SCHOLION. 
 
 Whatever good mankind is of himself able to perform, 
 agi-eeably to Laws of Freedom, may be termed Nature, 
 in contradistinction from that good which, springing from 
 preternatural aid, may be called Grace. The former epi- 
 thet does not, howexer, mean any physical property dif- 
 ferent from Freedom ; it is only employed because we 
 know the laws of this last's causality, whence also it hap- 
 pens that, in the analogy those bear to the uniform legal 
 sequences of the physical system. Reason possesses an easy, 
 conspicuous, and available gnomon as its guide : where- 
 as, touching any effects of Grace, we are left altogether in 
 the dark ; Reason being totally ignorant of the laws of 
 those operations. Indeed, everything hyperphysical flees 
 the scrutiny of our ken, among which transcendent points 
 of cogitation must ever be ranked Morality, qua absolute 
 Sanctity or Holiness. 
 
 The conception of the supra-accession of preternatural 
 increments to our moral but defective exertions is trans- 
 cendent, and a bare idea whose reality no experience can 
 confirm. And yet to admit this idea, even in a mere 
 practical point of view, is exceedingly perilous, and al- 
 most inconjungible with our own exertions, upon any 
 
 fulness of recollection is what is mostly prized (viz. that memory sup- 
 ply the answers to the questions) ; but as for the faithfulness of the con- 
 fessions uttered, touching this last, no question is ever asked — a good 
 memory is equipment enough for a good believer, although he does not so 
 much as understand the creed to which he is solemnly pledged. With 
 such a retrospect, why should we wonder at the inroads of insincerity, 
 which generates nothing but a race of inward Hypocrites. 
 
260 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOU 
 
 grounds of our Reason ; seeing that whatever good moral 
 conduct is to be imputable to our account, cannot be ori- 
 ginated by any foreign sources, but singly by the stre- 
 nuous and unfailing use of our own energies. The impos- 
 sibility, however, of such superadded aid cannot be evin- 
 ced, nor can it be shown, that both our own and extra- 
 neous exertions may not perhaps work harmoniously to- 
 gether. Although Freedom does, in its conception, con- 
 tain nothing supernatural : nevertheless the possibility even 
 of this our very freedom is incomprehensible ; in truth, 
 just as incomprehensible as the preternatural supply al- 
 leged to concur therewith ; helping and eking out our own 
 self-active but defective voluntaiy determinations. 
 
 There is, however, this very marked difference betwixt 
 the two cases. We are perfectly acquainted with Free- 
 dom's Law (viz. the Moral), according to which its cau- 
 sality is determinable : whereas touching the Laws of any 
 preternatural assistance we are left altogether in the dark ; 
 whether any perceived moral sti-ength within, really arise 
 from a celestial source : in what circumstances and under 
 what conditions this divine grace is to be expected, is un- 
 known and uninvestigable. We can, consequently, make 
 no use whatever of this Idea, farther than this general hy- 
 pothesis, viz. that what our own natural energies cannot 
 accomplish will be effected by Grace ; provided only we 
 ourselves have done our utmost. Wherefore, beyond an 
 earnest striving after a good life, nothing can by us be 
 done, so as either to draw down hitherward a superna- 
 tural operation, or yet to determine at what time, or in 
 what manner, we may expect it. The idea is quite trans- 
 cendent ; and it is even salutary to regard it as a sanctum, 
 not to be incautiously approached, lest, by rashly enter- 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 261 
 
 ing in, we fall into the imagination, either of performing 
 miracles ourselves : or into the no less distressing delusion 
 of perceiving fancied miracles wrought upon our inner 
 man, thereby unfitting ourselves for all rational use of 
 our intellectual faculties, and even encoui-aging ourselves 
 in sloth, passively waiting from above, for what is cer- 
 tainly to be had by our own diligent and strenuously-sus- 
 tained labour. 
 
 Means are those intermediate steps toward an end 
 which we mankind have fully within our own control. 
 Now in order to become worthy of celestial aid, there 
 is no other, and there can be no other mean than the so- 
 lemn and earnest endeavour, whereby we better to the 
 uttermost, our moral properties and state, so as to render 
 ourselves susceptible of receiving that complementary sup- 
 ply not within our reach, but which is nevertheless needed 
 for making us the faultless objects of the Divine compla- 
 cency ; the assistance expected, aiming in fact, at nothing 
 else than the forwarding of our morality. That the de- 
 praved and insincere will look for tliis aid anywhere ra- 
 ther than in industrious moral self-culture, might have 
 been expected beforehand ; and this anticipation we find 
 confirmed by fact. The sinner in every age has resorted 
 to sundry sensible observances, that never yet made any 
 one a better man, but which are intended supernaturally 
 to effect this desired transformation. Hence arises the 
 notion of means of grace, which, though a self-contra- 
 dicting representation, serves for a self-delusion alike 
 common, and hurtful to true religion. 
 
 The true worship of God rendered by the ethical believer 
 — at once a subject in the Divine realm, and at the same 
 time a free denizen of the moral state — is, like the liea- 
 
262 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 venly kingdom, itself invisible, viz. an inward service of 
 the heart, consisting in the spirit and truth of a real mo- 
 ral sentiment within ; and this service can alone consist 
 in that moral-mindedness which discharges all the incum- 
 bent offices of humanity as if they were Divine command- 
 ments, and does not consist in performing certain stated 
 actions exclusively rendered toward God. But then things 
 invisible, always require some sensible effigiation. This 
 practical vehicle, though perhaps indispensable, is a mode 
 of depicturing to us, our duties extremely open to misap- 
 prehension, inasmuch as those ceremonials that symboli- 
 cally suggest to us our offices as servants of the Most 
 High, become confounded with those offices themselves. 
 Whence mankind deem them part of the worship of the 
 Deity ; by which very name indeed the institutions of a 
 church, are not unfrequently miscalled. 
 
 This alleged worship of God, when reduced to its true 
 spirit and original intendment, will admit of a division into 
 four duties, recognised even by our own reason as duties 
 tending to forward the growth of a cast of thinking hal- 
 lowed by being dedicated to the advancement of tlie king- 
 dom of God. To these duties a few corresponding rites 
 will be associated, although standing with them in no ne- 
 cessary connection. Th^ forms serve as an ectyposiSf sha- 
 dowing forth those duties, and serve to rouse and sustain 
 our attention to what is the true worship of God. From 
 I'emote antiquity the following sensible rites have been 
 found serviceable, and aim all at one common end, viz. 
 the forwarding moi-ality. 1. With the design of firmly 
 grounding and settling this morality i?i ourselves, private 
 PRAYER has been had recourse to^ the sentiments of mora- 
 lity being thus intentionally enlivened and revivified. 2. 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 263 
 
 With the view of outwardly spreading and propelling the 
 reign of the good sentiment among others, assembling 
 TOGETHER IN CHURCH has been instituted. There, on stat- 
 ed periodic times, set specially apart for this very purpose, 
 religious doctrines, wishes, and sentiments, are embodied 
 by words, and mutually interchanged. 3. To propa- 
 gate morality among posterity, the newly-born members 
 are received into the communion of the faithful, where, by 
 some formulary, seniors are admonished of the duty of 
 educating and instructing their youth in the principles of 
 the faith (baptism among Christians). 4. In order to 
 preserve the society of believers, another public ceremo- 
 nial — the rite of communion — is celebrated. Individuals 
 are thus represented as members of an ethical body ; in 
 this they are permanently combined, agreeably to a prin- 
 ciple of equal rights, and joint participation in all the fruits 
 of the moral good. 
 
 Every undertaking in points of religion, when not purely 
 moral, and yet intended as a mean that is in itself to make 
 us acceptable to God, and so through him to procure the 
 satisfaction of all our wishes, springs from what we have 
 called a fetiche-belief. This heathenish belief consists in 
 the persuasion, that we can accomplish what we wish for 
 by resorting to steps that can neither naturally nor mo- 
 rally tend to such result, provided we steadfastly believe 
 that those means will nevertheless bring about those ends, 
 and then combine with this belief sundry outward cere- 
 monials. Even in minds where the conviction has struck 
 deep root, that everything depends upon the self-origi- 
 nated ethic-good, still the sensuous bias of our nature in- 
 duces an attempt at a sort of contraband morality, where- 
 by we expect to evade the troublesome conditions of ge- 
 
264 OF THE TRUE AKD FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 nuine integrity, aud fancy that if the ceremonial alone be 
 duly celebrated, God will accept it in lieu of the deed. 
 This would indeed be a surpassingly transcendent favour 
 on the part of the Deity ; or should we not rather call 
 such an imagination a dream, that in fond and arrogant 
 confidence deals with representations of grace, or perhaps 
 even a mere counterfeit and hypocritically feigned confi- 
 dence ? Owing to the above-mentioned causes, mankind 
 have, in every variety of public faith, excogitated sundry 
 usages as means of grace, although those last are not al- 
 ways (as it has been the case with Christianity) related to 
 the ideas of pure practical reason, and the moral sentiments 
 it demands. Of the five great Mahometan command- 
 ments, washing, praying, fasting, alms-giving, and pil- 
 grimage to Mecca, not one has the slightest cognationship 
 to morality, unless the alms-giving be excepted ; for when 
 the needy are relieved out of a truly virtuous and there- 
 fore religious mindedness, then might such eleemosynary 
 arrangement not unfitly deserve the name of a mean of 
 grace. And yet since, consistently with the principles of 
 Mahomet's creed, the dealing out of this gratuitous bounty 
 may very well consist and go hand in hand with an extor- 
 tion from others of what is thus feigned to be offered to 
 God in the person of the poor, it does not appear worthy 
 of ranking as an exception. 
 
 The kinds of elusory belief are thi-eefold, each over- 
 stepping the limits and barriers of the human understand- 
 ing in regard of that preternatural, which, consistently 
 with the known laws of our intellectual economy, is no 
 possible object either of theoretic or practical use. First, 
 there may be an imaginary faith, leading us to suppose we 
 know from observation and experience things whereof it 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 265 
 
 is certain that they cannot possibly take place according 
 to the objective laws of the material universe (the belief 
 in miracles). Second, a delusion that seems to render 
 it necessary for us to adopt, among our ethical notions, an 
 idea of something needed for our moral welfare, although 
 reason is unable to frame to itself any intelligible concep- 
 tion of what this may be (belief in mysteries). Third, 
 the delusion of supposing that by merely natural means 
 we can bring about a mysterious effect within, viz. a di- 
 vine influence operating upon our morality. Of the two 
 first-mentioned kinds of artificial belief, we have already 
 spoken in the scholia to the second and third books. There 
 remains by consequence to be treated of only the means 
 OF GRACE. These must be distinguished from the ope- 
 rations or GRACE ;f for these last are preternatural mo- 
 ral influences, where we are entirely passive, and the ima- 
 gined experience of such an inward grace is a fanatical 
 delusion, resting merely on some errant feeling. 
 
 I. Prayer, regarded as an internal formal worship of 
 the Deity, and so as a mean of grace, is a superstitious de- 
 lusion. It is nothing more than an uttered wish : declared 
 moreover in the presence of a Being who stands in need 
 of no information touching the inward sentiments of the 
 declarant. By prayer there is consequently nothing done ; 
 and none of those duties, which, as were they command- 
 ments of God, are incumbent upon us, are discharged. 
 Wherefore, in real fact and event, God remains all the 
 while morally unserved and unworshipped. The heart- 
 felt wish, that in everything we compass or avoid, we 
 may be found well-pleasing in God's sight — i. e. in other 
 
 t Conf. Scholion to Book I. 
 
266 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 words, the standing bent and ply of mind pervading all 
 our actions, and inducing us to perform them, as ivere they 
 done for the service of God, — is that spirit of prayer that 
 can and ought without ceasing to obtain within. To clothe 
 this wish in words or forraulariesf (even were these last 
 
 f By the former wish, considered as the spirit of prayer, mankind en- 
 deavours to operate singly uj)on himself, viz. by enlivening his moral 
 sentiments through means of the idea God. But on the latter wish, ver- 
 bally uttered, he expects, by an outward operation, to work upon God. 
 In the first case, prayer may be offered up with perfect sincerity, although 
 the individual does not so much as presume to affirm that God certainly 
 exists ; but in the second form, which is an address, the Most High is 
 necessarily figured to be personally present ; at least the individual makes 
 an inward feint, as if he were persuaded of the presence of the Supreme, 
 — thinking that this little makclelieve can do no harm, but may perhaps 
 recommend him to God's favour. From all which it is obvious, that in 
 a verbally pronounced prayer, the sincerity is not so unquestionable as 
 in one which confines itself to prayer's spirit. The accuracy of this re- 
 mark can easily be confirmed by a hypothetical case. Imagine a pious 
 good-meaning man, one, however, whose religious ideas are exceedingly 
 circumscribed, caught unexpectedly by another in the act, I will not say 
 of praying aloud, but merely in an attitude indicating what he is about ; 
 and it is scarcely necessary for me to add, that, in the case put, every 
 one would at once anticipate, that the supplicant wculd betray soipe 
 awkwardness or confusion, just as had he been detected in some situation 
 whereof he had reason to be ashamed. "What may be the cause of this 
 mental phenomenon ? The reason seems to be, that whenever any one 
 is found talking aloud to himself, we very naturally suspect him to be 
 slightly crazed ; and, in the same way, a not unsimilar judgment is 
 passed, when we find some one, though alone, performing gesticulations 
 that have only meaning when some one else stands before him. The 
 Teacher of the Gospel expressed the spirit of prayer most admirably in 
 that formula which enables us to dispense with all special prayers, and 
 80 even with the formula itself, as a mere verbal accompaniment. It 
 contains nothing except the forethought resolve of leading a morally 
 good life ; which resolve, coupled with the consciousness of our frailty, 
 gives birth to the perpetual and constant wish of becoming a worthy 
 member of the kingdom of God There is therefore no petition pre- 
 sented for anything that God might in his wisdom see meet to refuse ; 
 there is only a wish, which, when earnest and active, will of itself 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 267 
 
 no more than internally depictured), can, at the very 
 utmost, possess no other worth save that of a mean, 
 
 bring forth its own desired object, viz. our harmony with that in huma- 
 nity which is well-pleasing to God. Even the wish for the means of 
 subsistence, limited to one single day, amounts rather to a confession of 
 what our animal economy wants, than to any reflex request expressing 
 what the person himself wills. A prayer for to-morrow's bread would 
 convey this last, which, however, is manifestly excluded by the very 
 terms of the petition. This kind of prayer, prompted by a purely moral 
 sentiment (quickened by the idea God), it is alone that can be prayed 
 IN FAITH (i. e. in the conftdence that it will be heard); for it, as the 
 moral spirit of prayer, is of itself able to render the suppliant acceptable 
 to God. The only prayer that will certainly be heard, is such a prayer 
 for morality, as may, by being uttered and acted on, bring forth its own 
 object. No object, other than morality, stands in this predicament ; for 
 suppose a solemn petition were presented for bread for any one given 
 day, then is it impossible for any to foresee whether or not his supplica- 
 tion will be heard, i. e. no man can tell whether the object requested 
 stands in such necessary conjunction with God's wisdom, as that it must 
 of necessity be granted ; on the contrary, it may perhaps be more con- 
 gruous to the wisdom of the Almighty to allow the petitioner to die that 
 very day for want of food. Again, the proposal is alike frenzied and pre- 
 sumptuous to attempt, by importunate seeking, to move God from his 
 pre-appointed plans to our advantage ; wherefore no prayer, unless when 
 directed toward a moral object, will certainly be heard, i. e. no object 
 not moral can be supplicated for in faith. Nay, even were the object 
 one pertaining to morality, but possible to be attained by us only through 
 supernatural influence, then is it so exceedingly doubtful if God would 
 find it consistent with his wisdom to eke out and preternaturally fulfil 
 the gaps of character arising from our own self-demerited delinquencies, 
 that all mankind must rather see cause to expect the contrary. No man 
 can therefore pray in faith, even for this ethic benefit, still less can he 
 present a believing prayer for those moral goods which it is still his un- 
 remitting and incumbent duty himself to bring about within, e. g. the 
 retroversion of his perverted springs of will, and the putting on of the 
 new man, called regeneration. These remarks will farther enable us to 
 strike a due estimate of that so-called miraculous faith, said to be able to 
 move mountains, which, when exercised, must always be accompanied 
 by inward prayer. That God can bestow upon man a power of working 
 preternatural effects, is impossible, for the very conception involves a 
 contradiction. Again, man on his part can frame to himself no such clear 
 
268 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 awakening and quickening that oui* moral-mindedness or 
 intent. Directly it cannot relate to the Divine Appro- 
 notions of the possible good ends that this sublunary state may admit, as 
 to be able, even had he a supernatural gift, to co-operate with what the 
 decrees of Supreme Wisdom may have already determined on, and there- 
 fore could not but misapply this Almighty strength to some improper 
 uses. Understood literally, therefore, a miraculous faith of this sort 
 (" If yc had faith as a grain of miistard-sccd, and should say unto this moun- 
 tain," &c.) is absolutely incogitable, viz. a gift of working miracles, 
 where it should lie within the person's own power, by believing prayer, 
 either to possess or be without it. This miracle-working faith must 
 therefore be understood to point, if indeed it mean anything at all, to an 
 idea of the preponderating weight of the moral destination and properties 
 of our race ; so that should we ever attain moral perfection acceptable to 
 God (which we never can thoroughly in this life), an ethic qualification of 
 this sort would entirely outweigh every other motive that could be of- 
 fered to the Divine Wisdom, and thus become a ground of confidence, 
 that, were we altogether what we ought to be, and may (by a continual 
 approximation) become, then the material universe would be compelled 
 to obey our wishes, which last would, however, in such a case, cease to 
 be unwise. 
 
 Touching the edification accruing from church frequenting, it must 
 not be fancied that the public prayers there uttered are a mean of grace. 
 They constitute, however, an ethical solemnity, whether by jointly 
 chanting the hymn of faith, or by the set prayer, directed by the pas- 
 tor in name of the whole congregation toward God, and embracing all the 
 ethical concerns and interests of the flock. This address represents mo- 
 rality as the joint interest of all, and sets openly forth the wish of each 
 individual present, as united and concurring with the wishes of every 
 other toward one common end, viz. the bringing hitherward a kingdom 
 of God on earth. Thus may the feelings be stretched out to the higiiest 
 moral enthusiasm, — whereas private prayer rather relaxes them, the 
 above sublime idea being awanting, and the frequent repetition wearing 
 out the effect ; upon which account public prayer rests upon a deeper 
 ground of reason than private supplications. Furthermore, it clothes that 
 moral wish which constitutes the spirit of prayer into a framed and set 
 address, v/'xthout nccdi7ig the presence of the Supreme Being, or attaching 
 to a rhetorical figure the force of a mean of grace. 'J'he intention is 
 here quite determinate and given, viz. to stir with most emmotivc force 
 the inward springs of each individual, by a solemnity outwardly pourlray- 
 ing the whole society as unitivcly conjoined by the mutual wish of helping 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 269 
 
 bation ; and therefore it cannot be an immediate duty 
 incumbent upon every one, seeing that a mean can only 
 be enjoined upon hira who requires it for some particular 
 purpose. All, however, do not feel it necessary to resort 
 to this process (strictly speaking, of conversing in and 
 with themselves, under the pi'etext of communicating 
 more openly and directly with God) : on the contrary, 
 every one ought, by unremittingly clai'ifying and elevat- 
 ing the tone of his moral sentiment, to endeavour to reach 
 such a facility in ethical gymnastic, that this spirit of 
 prayer may be sufficiently animated and perpetuated by 
 itself alone, after which its outward letter may entirely 
 fall away. The verbal vehicle must, like every adminicle 
 which works indirectly only toward a given end, rather 
 weaken than strengthen the sensitive effect of the ethical 
 idea, — which effect, subjectively considered, is called de- 
 votion. Thus, from the contemplation of the unfathom- 
 able wisdom observable everywhere throughout the small- 
 est wonders of creation, as well as of the imposing ma- 
 jesty that invests the highest, there springs a feeling of 
 such complex potency, as at once to transplant our race 
 into that sinking frame of mind, bordering almost upon 
 self-annihilation, called adoration, in which, however, 
 there is at the same time, when referred to our moral des- 
 tination, such a soul-exalting power, that even the words 
 of the Royal Psalmist fall like empty sounds, in as much 
 as the effect arising from so marked and displayed an in- 
 tuition of the finger of the Almighty, is one that speech 
 cannot express. Again, since mankind readily transmute 
 
 onward the advent of the moral kingdom of God ; and this cannot more 
 aptly be accomplished than by invoking its Sovereign Head, as if he were 
 specially present in that place. 
 
270 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 whatever bears upon their moral amelioration into a reli- 
 gious ceremonial, where the professed humiliations and 
 Hosannahs are usually morally the less felt the more 
 they are wordy and rich in sound, it is extremely neces- 
 sary diligently to inculcate into children, even with their 
 earliest exercises in piety, where a verbal formulary cannot 
 as j^et be dispensed with, that all this discourse has no 
 worth of any sort in itself; but is of value only as it 
 tends to enliven the intent of pursuing a walk and con- 
 versation acceptable to God. The form of prayer is no 
 more than a leading-string for the imagination ; and a si- 
 milar remark holds of all efforts that a child may make 
 for apprehending in thought the idea God, which last 
 must be brought as near as possible to an intuition : for 
 where this admonition is overlooked or omitted, devout 
 demonstrations of pious homage are but too apt to slide 
 into a hypocritical worship of the Godhead, thereby 
 frustrating his practical and active service, which never 
 consists in mere abortive feelings and frames of the 
 sensory. 
 
 II. Assembling together in Church, regarded as the 
 solemn outward worship of God in a church generally, ex- 
 hibits a sensible delineation of the communion of believers, 
 and is therefore not only a mean of EDiFicATiONf that may 
 
 t When a fit signification is sought for this term, scarce any other can 
 be assigned than this: edification is the ethical effect wrought 
 uroN OUR OWN INNER MAN BY DEVOTION. This effect cannot be the 
 mental movement or emotion (for this is already involved in the concep- 
 tion of devotion), although the majority of the soi-disant devout (called 
 upon this very account devotees) place all edification just in this sen- 
 timental movement. Edification must therefore be understood to mean 
 THE ETHICAL PURCHASE that devotion takes tipon the actual amend- 
 ment and building up of the moral characters of mankind. A structure 
 of this sort can only then succeed when systematically gone about ; firm 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 271 
 
 fitly be recommended to each simple particular, but is 
 an immediate duty incumbent upon all, qua citizens of a 
 divine state to be founded and upheld on earth : always, 
 however, provided that the church contain no Formulary, 
 that by issuing in idolatry, may burden conscience, 
 e. g. adoratory invocations of God under the name of a 
 man, figured as an impersonation of His Infinite Benig- 
 nity, — a sensible delineation that would be contrary to 
 that behest of reason, — Thou shalt not make unto 
 THEE ANY LIKENESS, &c. But to use church-assemblies 
 as a mean of celestial grace, as if God were thereby im- 
 mediately served, and to suppose that God has connected 
 sundry benefits and favours with the celebration of this 
 solemnity (a mere sensible effigiation of the all-embracing 
 universality of religion), is a delusion that may no doubt 
 consort with the manners and decorum of a good burgher 
 in the common-weal political; but that not only adds 
 nothing, but that rather detracts from any one's quali- 
 fications as a citizen in the kingdom of God on earth. 
 This delusion serves only to hide the sorry content of one's 
 moral maxims from the eyes of others, and even from his 
 own, by daubing them over with some deceptive hues. 
 
 principles, fasliioned after well-understood conceptions, are, first of all, to 
 be laid deep into the foundations of the heart ; from these, sentiments 
 corresponding to the weight and magnitude of our several duties must 
 rise, and be protected and watched against the snares and wiles of appe- 
 tite and passion, thus uprearing and building up, as it reere, a new man — 
 A TEMPLE OF GOD. Evidently this edifice can advance but slowly, but 
 still some traces of superstructure ought to be perceptible. ]Many there 
 are, however, who deem themselves much edified (by a discourse, 
 psalmody, or book) where absolutely nothing has been builded up, aye ! 
 where not even has a finger been stirred to help on the work : possibly 
 they think that the ethic dome will, like the walls of Thebes, rise to the 
 harmonious concert of sighs and yearning wishes. 
 
272 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 III. Solerau initiation into church-membership and the 
 society of the faithful (into the Christian church by bap- 
 tism) is a highly significant rite ; imposing grave obliga- 
 tions upon the novice, should he be old enough to take 
 the vows upon himself, when he makes confession of his 
 faith ; or otherwise upon his sponsors, who undertake the 
 responsibility of his education. This ceremony aims di- 
 rectly at something holy, viz. the building up of an in- 
 dividual to become a pillar in the Divine state ; but it is 
 not in itself a holy act; nor does it possess any hallowing 
 efficacy, as if it could procure for the infant subject ho- 
 liness of natui-e and susceptibility for the Divine grace : 
 
 CONSEQUENTLY BAPTISM IS NO MEAN OF GRACE ; although 
 
 in the early Greek church this rite was held in such ex- 
 travagant honour, that people supposed it could wash 
 away all sins at once, — a hypothesis whereby this delu- 
 sion openly betrays its intimate aflinity with an almost 
 more than heathenish superstition. 
 
 IV. The frequently reiterated solemnity of renewing, 
 CONTINUING, and propagating the ecclesiastical associa- 
 tion agreeably to laws of equality — the communion — pre- 
 sents unquestionably a grand and august cogitation. The 
 communion may, following the example of the Founder of 
 the Church, and also with a view to keep him in remem- 
 brance, be celebrated by joint participation in the same 
 elements at the same table. It thus expands the narrow, 
 selfish, and unsociable temper of mankind, which is no- 
 where more obvious than in religious matters, to the idea 
 of a cosmopolitical moral community ; and is a good mean, 
 well fitted for carrying forward the congregation in the 
 culture of that moral and brotherly love, which is there- 
 by so prominently represented. But to hold that there 
 
UK'DER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PlllNCIl'LE. 273 
 
 are special favours connected by the Divine Will with tlie 
 celebration of this ordinance, and to laud and extol it as 
 such, as also to insert among the articles of creed the 
 tenet that this action, which is a mere church-rite, is he- 
 side and beyond, a mean of grace, are delusions in re- 
 ligion, that must inevitably counteract its true spirit and 
 genius. Priestdom, i. e. sacerdotal despotism under the 
 sway of a cleriarchy, may consequently be explained yet 
 farther, as the usurped dominion lorded by churchmen 
 over the minds of the laity ; the former having arrogat- 
 ed to themselves exclusive possession of the means of 
 
 GRACE. 
 
 All these various kinds of artificial self-deceptions in 
 religion spring from one common source. Of all the mo- 
 ral attributes of the Deity, viz. his holiness, benignity, 
 and justice, mankind commonly address themselves to 
 the second, in order to evade the deterring condition of 
 becoming conformable to the sacro-sanct requirements of 
 the first. It is irksome to make one's self a good and 
 faithful servant — for then duties must be discharged. It 
 is more agreeable to be a favourite, for then one's short- 
 comings will be connived at ; or should duty have been 
 far too grossly violated to be thus overlooked, why, then, 
 it may be atoned for and made up through the interced- 
 ing mediation of some one pre-eminently beloved — the 
 unworthy favourite remaining the same unprofitable ser- 
 vant as before. To succeed in this self-delusion, man- 
 kind generally transfer their notions of human nature, 
 together with all its failings, to the Godhead. And since 
 in the case of any earthly Governor, the severity of law, 
 benignant grace, and unbending justice, are not adminis- 
 
274 OF THE TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP OF GOD 
 
 tered apart, each for and by itself, as they ought to be, but 
 are all amalgamated into one, when sentence is passed by 
 an earthly tribunal, tbe sinner hopes to deal in like man- 
 ner with the divine righteousness. To bias the adminis- 
 trator of human laws, all that is necessary is to circum- 
 vent the failing wisdom of his human will, after which 
 the justice and law needs must yield ; an experiment that, 
 by parity of reason, it is presumed will tell with equal 
 readiness upon the Divine grace. To obviate a confusion 
 of this sort demanded that wary and careful separation 
 of the three above-named divine attributes prelected on 
 in the scholion to our Third Book, where the tri-form re- 
 lationship obtaining betwixt God and man'was brought 
 more conspicuously and prominently forward by the ana- 
 logical idea of a threefold personality. With some such 
 view as the above, every imaginable sort of ceremonial is 
 industriously celebrated, and, by demonstrating the utmost 
 homage toward the divine commandments, the necessity of 
 obeying them is supposed to be supplanted. Again, to the 
 end that dcedless wishes may compensate for deliberate 
 transgressions, the sinner cries Lord ! Lord ! to escape the 
 necessity of doing the will of his Heavenly Father. Hence 
 solemnities, intended as a mode of enlivening sentiments 
 truly practical, are mistaken for rites that are in themselves 
 means of grace. The belief that they possess this efticacy is 
 next given out and declared to be an essential clement of 
 religion (the common people often deem them religion it- 
 self, and the whole duties of it), while the sinner trusts to 
 Providence to make out of him a better man, and instead 
 of virtue (?. e. the active exercise of his own powers in dis- 
 charging), presses after piety (/. c. passive veneration of the 
 Divine law), although properly the combination of both 
 
UNDER THE SWAY OF THE GOOD PRINCIPLE. 275 
 
 is what alone can be termed godliness, i. e. a bent and ply 
 of the mind truly religious. When once the phantasms 
 of this supposed favourite of heaven have reached the fa- 
 natical extravaganza of feeling special works of grace with- 
 in, and of attaining and establishing a familiar though 
 hidden intercourse and fellowship with the Deity, then 
 does the very term virtue become abominable in his ears, 
 and itself the object of his most superlative disdain. Need 
 any one, then, wonder at the universal complaint, that reli- 
 gion contributes so little to the moral amendment of our 
 race, and that the inward light of those elect is still under 
 the bushel, and will not'outwardly shine forth, radiant with 
 good works. And yet the Teacher of the Gospel declared 
 these outward fruits to be the tests whereby each might try 
 and know himself and others. Judging of the elect by their 
 own professions, we might expect to find them exemplary 
 beyond the rest of mankind, who abide by the behests of 
 natural honour ; whose religion, moreovei*, having been 
 adopted, not with the view of supplanting, but of support- 
 ing their morality, makes itself visible by a course of good 
 and active deportment. The day has not yet come when 
 it ever was seen that those who deem themselves thus 
 signally favoured and chosen, excelled in any one point the 
 man of plain natural honesty, upon whom we can count 
 in society, in business, or in distress; on the contrary, 
 taken all in all, they can hardly stand out a comparison 
 with their neighbours, — a sufficient proof that it is not 
 the right course to begin with celestial grace, and thence 
 descend to virtue ; but rather commencing with virtue, 
 thence rise to the condonation of divine grace. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 31, line 1, betwixt as and congenitc, insert merely. 
 Page 31, line 2, betwixt he and looked, insert farther. 
 Page 210, line 2, for infringe, read impinge. 
 Page 212, line 21, betwixt is and to, insert kot. 
 
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