Part 1

OF THE IMPORTANCE OF RELIGIOUS OPINIONS.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH

OF

MR. NECKER.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, N^o 72, ST. PAUL’S CHURCH-YARD.

M.DCC.LXXXVIII.

ADVERTISEMENT.

_In rendering this Work into English some Liberties have been taken by the Translator, which seemed necessary to preserve the Spirit of the Original._

CONTENTS.

CHAP. I. _On the Connection of Religious Principles with public Order_ Page 1

CHAP. II. _The same Subject continued. A Parallel and of Laws and Opinions_ 48

CHAP. III. _An Objection drawn from our natural Dispositions to Goodness_ 98

CHAP. IV. _An Objection drawn from the good Conduct of many irreligious Men_ 104

CHAP. V. _The Influence of Religious Principles on our Happiness_ 118

CHAP. VI. _The same Subject continued. The Influence of Virtue on Happiness_ 149

CHAP. VII. _On Religious Opinions, in their Relation with Sovereigns_ 169

CHAP. VIII. _An Objection drawn from the Wars and from the Commotions which Religion has given Rise to_ 189

CHAP. IX. _Another Objection examined. The Sabbath_ 196

CHAP. X. _An Observation on a particular Circumstance of public Worship_ 206

CHAP. XI. _That the single Idea of a God is a sufficient Support of Morality_ 210

CHAP. XII. _That there is a God_ 278

CHAP. XIII. _The same Subject continued_ 296

CHAP. XIV. _The same Subject continued_ 316

CHAP. XV. _On the Respect that is due from true Philosophy to Religion_ 382

CHAP. XVI. _The same Subject continued. Reflections on Intolerance_ 399

CHAP. XVII. _Reflections on the Morality of the Christian Religion_ 417

CHAP. XVIII. _Conclusion_ 446

INTRODUCTION.

My thoughts having been detached from the study and disquisition of those truths which have the political good of the state for their object; and being no longer obliged to fix any attention on those particular arrangements of the public interest, which are necessarily connected with the operations of government; I found myself abandoned, as it were, by all the important concerns of life. Restless and wandering in this kind of void, my soul, still active, felt the want of employment. I sometimes formed the design of tracing my ideas of men and characters; I imagined that long experience in the midst of those active scenes which discover the passions, had taught me to know them well; but elevating my views, my heart was filled with a different ambition, and a desire to reconcile the sublimest thoughts with those meditations from which I was constrained to withdraw myself. Guided by this sentiment, I remarked, with satisfaction, that there existed a natural connection between the different truths which contribute to the happiness of mankind. Our prejudices and our passions frequently attempt to disunite them; but to the eye of an attentive observer, they have all one common origin. From a similar affinity, the general views of administration, the spirit of laws, morality, and religious opinions, are closely connected; and it is by carefully preserving an alliance so beautiful, that we raise a rampart round those works, which are destined for the prosperity of states and the tranquillity of nations.

One could not have taken an active part in the administration of public affairs; or made it the object of stedfast attention; one could not have compared the several relations of this great whole, with the natural dispositions of minds and characters; nor indeed observed men in a perpetual state of rivalry and competition, without perceiving, how much the wisest governments need support from the influence of that invisible spring which acts in secret on the consciences of individuals. Thus whilst I am endeavouring to form some reflections on the importance of religious opinions, I am not so far removed from my former habit of thinking as may, at the first glance, be imagined; and as in writing on the management of finances, I omitted no argument to prove that there is an intimate connexion between the efficacy of governments, and the wisdom with which they are conducted; between the virtue of princes, and the confidence of their subjects, I think I am still proceeding in the same train of sentiment and reflection, when struck with that spirit of indifference which is so general, I endeavour to refer the duties of men to those principles which afford them the most natural support.

After having studied the interests of a great nation, and run over the circle of our political societies, we approach nearer perhaps to those sublime ideas which bind the general structure of mankind to that infinite and Almighty Being, who is the first grand cause of all, and universal mover of the universe. In the rapid course of an active administration, indeed one cannot indulge similar reflections; but they are forming and preparing themselves in the midst of the tumult of business, and the tranquillity of retirement enables us to strengthen and extend them.

The calm which succeeds hurry and confusion, seems the reason most favourable to meditation; and if any remembrance, or retrospective views of what is past should inspire you with a kind of melancholy, you will be involuntarily led back to contemplations which border on those ideas with which you have been long conversant. It is thus the mariner, after having renounced the dangers of the sea, sometimes seats himself on the beach, and there, a more tranquil observer, considers attentively the boundless ocean, the regular succession of the waves, the impression of the winds, the flux and reflux of the tide, and that magnificent firmament, where, during the night, among lights innumerable, he distinguishes the lucid point, which serves as a guide to the navigators.

It is in vain, in those high stations under government, to interest yourself about the happiness of mankind in general; it is in vain, that, penetrated with a just respect for the important duties of office, a public character shall dare to take in hand the cause of the people, and incessantly apply himself to the defence of the weak, in opposition to the attacks of the powerful; he soon perceives how bounded are his abilities, and how limited are those, even of sovereignty itself. Pity for the distresses of the individual is checked by the law of civil rights; benevolence by justice; and liberty by its own abuses: you perpetually behold merit struggling with patronage, honour with fortune, and patriotism with the interest of the individual. There is no such thing as real disinterestedness in the passions, only by fits and starts; unless great circumstances, or vigorous virtue in an administration, forcibly renewed the idea of public good, a general langour would take place in every mind, and society itself would appear one confused mass of opposite interests, which the supreme authority keeps within bounds for the maintenance of peace, without any inquietude about real harmony, or any revolution favourable to the manners or happiness of the public.

From the midst of these clashings and contradictions, continually recurring, a minister, possessed of a reflecting mind, is incessantly called back to the idea of imperfection; he will, undoubtedly, be sorry, when he sees the great disproportion which exists between his duty and his powers; and he will sometimes grieve and be discouraged, at perceiving the obstacles he must surmount, and the difficulties he must overcome: he raises, with labour and care, banks on the strand, the waters swell, their course becomes more rapid, and the first precautions rendered insufficient, oblige him to have recourse to new works, which, thrown down in their turn, hurry on a continued succession of fruitless toil and useless attempts. What then would be the consequence, if once the salutary chain of religious sentiments were broken? What would be the event, if the action of that powerful spring were ever entirely destroyed? You would soon see every part of the social structure tremble from its foundation, and the hand of government unable to sustain the vast and tottering edifice.

The sovereign, and the laws which are the interpreters of his wisdom, should have two grand objects, the maintenance of public order, and the increase of private happiness. But to accomplish both, the aid of religion is absolutely necessary. The sovereign cannot influence the happiness of individuals, but by a general solicitude; because the sentiments which spring from the different characters of men, or merely from the circumstances of their respective situations, are independent of him. Neither can he ensure the preservation of public order, but by rules and institutions, which are only applicable to actions, and to those actions positively proved. It is necessary also that the laws should extend their influence to society in a uniform manner; they should always have a tendency to diminish the number of distinctions, shades, and modifications, that are to be found in the actions of men; in short, to prevent those abuses inseparably attendant on arbitrary decisions.

Such are the bounds of sovereign authority, and such the necessary developement of its means and powers. Religion, to attain the same ends, employs other motives essentially different: first, it is not in a vague and general manner, that she influences the happiness of mankind; it is by addressing all men individually; by penetrating the heart of every human being, and pouring into it consolation and hope; by presenting to the imagination every thing that can insensibly lead it captive; by taking possession of men’s sentiments; by occupying their thoughts; and by availing herself of this dominion over them, to sustain their courage, and to afford them comfort under their afflictions and disappointments. In this manner religion concurs to maintain good order, by means absolutely distinct from those of government; for she not only governs our actions, but even our sentiments: it is with the errors and inclinations of each man in particular, that she seeks to combat. Religion, in demonstrating the presence of the Deity, on all occasions, however secret, exercises an habitual authority over the consciences of men; she seems to assist them under the perturbations of fear, and yet attends them in their flight; she equally notices their intentions, projects, and repentance; and in the method which she takes, seems as undulating and flexible in all her motions, as the empire of the law appears immoveable and constrained.

I should not, at present, extend these reflections any further; but, if religion, in some measure, completes the imperfect work of legislation; if it ought to supply the insufficiency of those means which government is under the necessity of adopting, the subject I propose to treat of seems not foreign to those objects of meditation, which the study of administration ought to comprehend.

I well know, that it is impossible to explain the importance of religion, without, at the same time, fixing the attention on the grand truths on which it depends; and you must also frequently touch on many subjects that are closely connected with the deepest metaphysics. We are, at least, obliged to seek for a defence against those arguments which sap the foundation of the most necessary opinions; by which the most impassioned sentiments have been discouraged; by which some would reduce man to a vegetable, make the universe the result of chance, and morality a state trick.

As soon as I discovered how far my subject was likely to lead me, I felt myself intimidated; but I could not allow this to be a sufficient reason for relinquishing my undertaking; and since the greater part of the philosophers of the present age are united in opposition to those opinions, which the light of nature seems to have rendered sacred, it is become indispensably necessary, to admit to the combat all that offer; nay, even to select a champion from the main body of the army, when all the strong ones are already gone over to the camp of the enemy.

There is nothing which seems to engross the attention of mankind more than metaphysical enquiries, for it is by thinking alone they can be fathomed; the light gained by acquired knowledge is, in some measure, lost in those obscure depths which it is necessary to sound, and that immense space which it is necessary to traverse. Thus, it were better, perhaps, that each should enter by chance into these labyrinths, where the paths, already traced, lead to no one determined point. I have, besides, often observed, that, even for those researches, where the helps of science are most useful, we ought to set a certain value on the particular excursion of each genius, which seeks out for itself a way, and which, indebted to nature alone for its peculiar formation, preserves in its progress a character of its own; it is then, and then only, that we are not invested with the distinguishing marks of slavishness of thinking; but when, by devoting ourselves to reflection, we coincide with the opinions of others, this conformity has nothing of servility in it, and the marks of imitation are not even recognized.

In vain would man resist the impression of truth; in vain would he defend himself by a ridiculous indifference for ancient opinions; there never could be an idea more worthy to occupy our meditations, there never could be an idea, on which we might be more fully permitted to expatiate, according to our knowledge and penetration, than that sublime one of a Supreme Being, and the relation we bear to him: an idea, which though far removed from us by its immensity, every moment strikes the soul with admiration, and inspires the heart with hope.

It appears to me, that there are interests which may be considered as patriotic by intelligent and feeling beings; and while the inhabitants of the same country, and the subjects of the same prince, employ themselves diligently in one common plan of defence, the citizens of the world ought to be incessantly anxious to give every new and possible support to those exalted opinions on which the true greatness of their existence is founded, which preserves the imagination from that frightful spectacle of an existence without origin, of action without liberty, and futurity without hope. Thus after having, as I think, proved myself a citizen of France, by my administration, as well as my writings, I wish to unite myself to a fraternity still more extended—that of the whole human race: it is thus, without dispersing our sentiments, we may be able nevertheless to communicate ourselves a great way off, and enlarge in some measure the limits of our circle: glory be to our thinking faculties for it! To that spiritual portion of ourselves which can take in the past, dart into futurity, and intimately associate itself with the destiny of men of all countries, and of all ages. Without doubt, a veil is thrown over the greater part of those truths, to which our curiosity would willingly attain; but those which a beneficent God has permitted us to see, are amply sufficient for our guide and instruction; and we cannot, for a continuance divert our attention without a species of slothful negligence, and a total indifference to the superior interests of man. How little is every thing indeed, when put in competition with those meditations, which give to our existence a new extent, and which, in detaching us from the dust of the earth, seem to unite our souls to an infinity of space, and our duration of a day to the eternity of time! Above all, it is for you to determine, who have sensibility—who feel the want of a Supreme Being, and who seek to find in him that support so necessary to your weakness, that defender and that assurance, without which painful inquietude will be perpetually tormenting you, and troubling those soft, tender affections which constitute your happiness.

However, I must say, there never perhaps was a period, when it was more essentially necessary to recal to the minds of men, the importance of religious sentiments; at present they are but prejudices, if we may credit the spirit of licentiousness and levity; the laws dictated by fashion; and more particularly essential since we have had philosophical instructions, which excite the various deviations of vanity, and rally the wanderings of the imagination.

There is not any form of religion, undoubtedly, to which ideas more or less mystical have not been annexed; and of which the evidence has not been in proportion to the dictatorial language, and authoritative tone, which has been made use of in teaching and defending it; as such, one might at any given period have been tempted to dispute about particular parts of worship, which different nations have adopted; but it is principally in the present age, that a certain class of men has sprung up, distinguished for their wit and talents; and who, intoxicated by the facility with which they have gained a victory, have extended their ambition, and had the daring courage to attack the reserved body of that army of which the front ranks had already given way.

This struggle between persons, one of whom would imperiously rule by faith alone, whilst the other thinks he has a right to reject with disdain every thing that has not been demonstrated, will always be a fruitless combat; and only serve to nourish blind aversion and unjust contempt. Some seek to wound their adversaries, others to humble them; in the mean time the good of mankind, and the true benefit of society, are absolutely lost sight of; yes, the real love of useful truths, the impartial search after them, and the desire of pointing them out, these sentiments, so amiable and so truly laudable, seem to be entirely unknown. I see, permit me to say it, I see at the two extremities of the arena, the savage inquisitor, and the inconsiderate philosopher; but neither the faggots lighted by the one, nor the derisions of the other, will ever diffuse any salutary instruction; and in the eyes of a rational man, the intolerance of monks adds no more to the dominion of true religious sentiments, than the jests of a few licentious wits have effected a triumph in favour of philosophy.

It is between these opposite opinions, and in the midst of wanderings equally dangerous, that we must attempt to mark out our way; but as all the opinions of men are subject to change; at present, when their minds are more averse to the maxims of intolerance, it is religion itself that principally needs support; and such is the daily diminution of it, that means supplying the deficiency seem to be already publicly preparing. For some time past we have heard of nothing but the necessity of composing a moral catechism, in which religious principles should not be introduced, as resources that are now out of date, and when it is time they were discarded. Without doubt these principles might be more effectually attacked, could they ever be represented as totally useless for the maintenance of public order; and if the cold lessons of a political philosophy could be substituted for those sublime ideas, which, by the spiritual tie of religion, binds the heart and mind to the purest morality. Let us now examine if we should gain any thing by the exchange; let us see, if the means they propose to employ can be put in competition with those which ought to be made use of; and, if they are more solid, and more efficacious; let us see, if this new doctrine, which is recommended, will produce in the soul the same degree of consolation; if it is calculated for those hearts which are possessed of sensibility; and, above all, let us attentively consider, if it can be suitable to the measure of intelligence, and the social situation of the greater part of mankind. In short, in considering the various questions, which in any manner, relate to the important subject we have undertaken to treat, let us not be afraid to resist, as well as we can, the foolish ambition of those, who, availing themselves of the superiority of their understanding, wish to deprive man of his dignity, to place him on a level with the dust under his feet, and make his foresight a punishment:—melancholy and deplorable destiny! from which, however, we are permitted to seek to defend ourselves; cruel and disastrous opinion! which tears up by the roots every thing which surrounds it, which relaxes the most necessary bands, and, in an instant, destroys the most delightful charm of life.

O thou God unknown!——but whose beneficent idea has ever filled my soul, if thou ever throwest a look on those efforts which man makes to approach thee, sustain my resolution, enlighten my understanding, raise my thoughts, and reject not the desire I have to unite still more, if possible, the order and happiness of society, with the intimate and perfect conception of thy divinity, and the lively idea of thy sublime existence.

OF THE

IMPORTANCE

OF

RELIGIOUS OPINIONS.

CHAP. I. _On the Connection of Religious Principles with public Order._

We know not distinctly the origin of most political societies; but as soon as history exhibits men united in a national body, we perceive, at the same time, the establishment of public worship, and the application of religious sentiments, to the maintenance of good order and subordination. Religious sentiments, by the sanction of an oath, bind the people to the magistrates, and the magistrates to their engagements; they inspire a reverential respect for the obligations contracted between sovereigns; and these sentiments, still more authoritative than discipline, attach the soldier to his commander; in short, religious opinions, by their influence on the manners of individuals, have produced an infinite number of illustrious actions and instances of heroical disinterestedness, of which history has transmitted us the remembrance. But as we have seen a philosophy spring up among nations the most enlightened, anxiously employed in depriving religion of all that merited respect, dissertations on times far removed from us, and the various systems that they would endeavour violently to associate with religion, would become an endless source of controversy. It is then, by reasoning alone, by that exercise of the mind, which belongs equally to all countries and all ages, that we can support the cause which we have taken in hand to defend. There is, perhaps, something weak and servile in our wishing to draw assistance from ancient opinions; reason ought not, like vanity, to adorn herself with old parchments, and the display of a genealogical tree; more dignified in her proceeding, and proud of her immortal nature, she ought to derive every thing from herself; she should disregard past times, and be, if I may use the phrase, the contemporary of all ages.

It was reserved, particularly for some writers of our age, to attack even the utility of religion; and to seek to substitute, instead of its active influence, the inanimate instruction of a political philosophy. Religion, say they, is a scaffold fallen into ruins, and it is high time to give to morality a more solid support. But what support will that be? we must, in order to discover, and form a just idea of it; distinctly consider the different motives of action on which depend the relations that subsist between men; and it will be necessary to estimate, afterwards, the kind and degree of assistance which we may reasonably expect from a like support.

It appears to me, that in renouncing the efficacious aid of religion, we may easily form an idea of the means that they will endeavour to make use of to attach men to the observance of the rules of morality, and to restrain the dangerous excesses of their passions. They would, undoubtedly, place a proper value on the connection which subsists between private and general interest; they would avail themselves of the authority of laws, and the fear of punishment; and they would confide still more in the ascendency of public opinion, and the ambition, that every one ought to have, of gaining the esteem and confidence of his fellow-creatures.