Page:History of Modern Philosophy (Falckenberg).djvu/208

l86 ENGLISH DEISM. the harmony of its contents with reason : the deist be- lieves in the Bible because of the reasonableness of its teachings ; he does not hold these teachings true because they are found in the Bible. If a positive religion con- tains less than natural religion it is incomplete ; if it con- tains more it is tyrannical, since it imposes unnecessary requirements. The authority of reason to exercise the office of a judge in regard to the credibility of revelation is beyond doubt ; indeed, apart from it there is no means of attaining truth, and the acceptance of an external reve- lation as genuine, and not merely as alleged to be such, is possible only for those who have already been convinced of God's existence by the inner light of reason. To these logical considerations is added an historical posi- tion, which, though only cursorily indicated at the beginning, is evidenced in increasing detail as the deistic movement continues on its course. Natural religion is always and everywhere the same, is universal and necessary, is perfect, eternal, and original. As original, it is the earliest religion, and as old as the world ; as perfect, it is not capable of improvement, but only of corruption and restoration. Twice it has existed in perfect purity, as the religion of the first men and as the religion of Christ. Twice it has been corrupted, in the pre-Christian period by idolatry, which proceeded from the Egyptian worship of the dead, in the period after Christ by the love of miracle and blind reverence for authority. In both cases the corruption has come from power-loving priests, who have sought to frighten and control the people by incomprehensible dog- mas and ostentations, mysterious ceremonies, and found their advantage in the superstition of the multitude, — each new divinity, each new mystery meaning a gain for them. As they had corrupted the primitive religion into polythe- ism, so Christianity was corrupted by conforming it to the prejudices of those to be converted, in whose eyes the sim- plicity of the new doctrine would have been no recommen- dation for it. The Jew sought in it an echo of the Law, the heathen longed for his festivals and his occult philosopliy ; so it was burdened with unprofitable ceremonial observances and needless profundity, it was Judaized and heathenized.