The constitution of man : considered in relation to external objects / by George Combe.
- George Combe
- Date:
- 1844
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The constitution of man : considered in relation to external objects / by George Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![was it long probably before this new instructer plainly avowed his own entire emancipation from a popular pre- judice, to which he was kindly sorry to find a sensible young man still in captivity. But he had no doubt that the deductions of enlightened reason would success- fully appeal to every liberal mind. And accordingly, aftei perhaps a few months of frequent intercourse, with the addition of two or three books, and the readv aid of all the recollected vices of pretended Christians and pretended Christian churches, the whole venerable maj- ice of Revelation was annihilated. Its illumina- tions respecting the Divinity, its miracles, its Messiah. its authority of moral legislation, its regions of immor- tality and retribution, the sublime virtues and devotion of its prophets, apostles, and martyrs, together with the reasonings of so many accomplished advocates, and the credibility of history itself, were vanished all awav ; while the convert, exulting in his disenchantment, felt ige pleasure to behold noming but a dreary tram of impostures and credulity stretching over .those past ages which latelv were gilded with so divine a vision, and the thickest Egvptian shades fallen on that total rich the spirit of inspiration had partial- ly and very solemnly illuminated. - the mind so powerfully on. as to have successfully begun to demolish what has been deemed to be most sacred. The soldiers of probablv had never felt themselves so brave, as after Lad cut down theMassilian grove ; nor the tines, as when the ark of the God of Israel was among S] oils : the mind is proud of its triumphs in pro- portion to the reputed greatness of what it has ovc-r- And many examples would seem to indicate, that the first pro id triumphs over religious faith involve so sic fatality of advancing, however formidable the mas? of arguments which mav obstruct the progress. to farther victories. But perhaps the intellectual diffi- culty of the progress might be less than a zealous be- liever would be apt to imagine. As the ideas which le greatest distinctness to our conception of a Divine Being are imparted by revelation, and rest on its authority, the rejection of that revelation would in a great measure banish those ideas, and destroy that ness. We have but to advert to pure heathen- ism, to perceive what, a faint conception of this Being e formed by the strongest intellect in the ab- sence of revelation : and after the rejection of it. the mind would naturally be carried very far back toward that darkness, so that some of the attributes of the won d immediatelv become, as thev were with ::ts of doubtful conjecture and hope- :ulation. But from this state of thought it is perhaps no vast transition to that, in which his being -. 11 begin to appear a subject of doubt ; since the realitv of a being is with difficulty apprehended, in nr >rtion a<= its attributes are undefmable. And when the mind is brought into doubt, we know it easily ad- vances to disbelief, if to the smallest plausibility of ar- ts he added any powerful moral cause for wish- :h a conclusion. In the present case there might be a very powerful cause, besides that pride of victory which I have just noticed. The progress in guilt, generally follows a rejection of revelation, makes aore and more desirable that no ob|ect should remain to be feared. It was not strange, there I i re '.d with avidity, or even strange if he read mth s . i ch his wishes completed into eon- . a few of the writers, who have attempted the last achievement of presumptuous man. After inspect- ing these pages a'while, he raised his eyes, and the ■Great Spirit was gone. Mighty transformation of all The luminaries of heaven no longer shone -with his splendour ; the adorned earth no longer looked th his beauty : the darkness of night had ceased io &e rendered solemn by his majesty; life and thought were not a; ta all-pervading energy ; not his providence that supported an infinite charge of dependent beings ; his empire of justice no longer spread over thd universe ; nor had even that universe sprung from his all-creating power. Yet when voi saw the intellectual course brought to this signal con- clusion, though aware of the force of each preceding and predisposing circumstance, you might neverthel be somewhat struck with the suddenness^ of the final de- cision, and might be curious to know what kind of argu- rnent and eloquence could so quickly finish the work, i ou would examine those pages with the expectation probably of something more powerful than subtlety at- tenuated into inanity, and in that invisible and impal- pable state, mistaken by the reader, and willingly ad- mitted by the perverted writer, for profunditv of rea- soning ; than attempts to destrov the certainty, or pre- clude the application, of some of those great familiar principles which must be taken as the basis of human reasoning, or it can have no basis ; than suppositions which attribute the order pf the universe to such cat;- as it would be felt ridiculous to pronounce adequate produce the most trifling piece of mechanism ; th mystical jargon which, under the name of nature, al- ternately exalts aimost into the properties of a god, ai reduces far below those of a man. some imaginarv and lindefineable agent or agencv. which performs themo^t amazing works without power, and displays the m amazing wisdom without in than a zealo :s preference of that part of ev iilemma wh. merely confounds and sinks tne mind, to that whi elevates while it overwhelms : it thin a constant endea- vour to degrade as far as possible every thing that is sublime in our speculations and feelings, or than mon- strous parallels between religion and mythology. You would be still more unprepared to expect on so solemn a subject the occasional wit. or affectation of w would seem rather prematurely expressive;of exulta : that the grand Foe is retiring. A feeling of complete certainty would hardly be tn a rapidly attained; but a slight degree of remainin» doubt, and consequent apprehension, would not prev this disciple of darkness from accepting the invitation to pledge himself to the cause in some associated band, where profaneness and rice would consolidate impious opinions without the aid of augmented conviction ; and where the fraternity, having been • b spirit of social daring to say. WTiat is the Almighty that ice should serve him • the individuals might acquire each a firmer boldness to exclaim. Wno is the Lord that / should obey his voice 1 Thu:? easy it is. my friend, for a man to meet that train of influences which mav se- duce him to live an infidel, though it mav betravhim to die a terrified believer : that train of which the infatua- tion, while it promises him the impunity of non-esis ence. and degrades him to desire it, impels him to fill the measure of his iniquity, till the divine wr-ta come upon him to the uttermos . LETTER VI. The Influence of Religion counteracted by a7mo-.t all other I - Jluences—Pensive Refletunu on the imperfect Man ij of the Supreme Brim—on the meJJSJcacy of the Belief of swh a Being—on the Strangeness of that Inefficnry—a at on the Denotement and Infelicity consequent on it—Hap- piness of a derout ^fm. In recounting so many influences that operate on man, it is grievous to observe that the incomparably noblest of all, religion, is counteracted with a fatal suc- cess bv a perpetual conspiracy of almost all the rest, aided bv the intrinsic predisposition of our nature, •elds itself without such consenting facility to every impression tending to estrange it still farther from God.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21029131_0082.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
