It may be safely said, that enthusiasm is the base of the morality of Christianity; I say, the morality of Christianity, meaning thereby, not the morality of those called Christians, but the morality expressed, and required in the New Testament.  The virtues it recommends, are the virtues caricatured, and rendered extravagant; virtues which divide a man from his neighbour, and plunge him in melancholy, and render him useless, and unhappy In this world we want human virtues, not those which make a man a misanthrope.  Society desires, and wants virtues that help to maintain it, which gives it energy and activity.  It wants virtues which render families industrious, and united; and which incite, and enable every one to obtain lawful pleasures, and to augment the general felicity.  But the peculiar virtues of the New Testament, either debase the mind by overwhelming fears, or intoxicate it with visionary hopes, both which, are equally fitted to turn away men from their proper duties.

In truth, what advantages can society derive from those virtues styled by Christians, Evangelical? which they prefer to the social virtues, the real and the useful, and without which, they assert, a man cannot please God, Let us examine these vaunted perfections, and let us see of what utility they can be to society, and whether they really merit the preference which is given them by their advocates.

The first of these Christian virtues, which serves as a base for all the others, is faith.  It consists in believing the truth of dogmas, of absurd fables, which Christianity (according to the catechisms) orders its disciples to believe—­dogmas, as absurd and impossible as a square circle, or a round triangle—­from which we see, that this virtue exacts an entire renunciation of common sense; an assent to incredible facts, and a blind credulity in absurd dogmas, which, yet, every Christian is required to believe, under pain of damnation.

This virtue, too, though necessary to all men, is, nevertheless, the gift of heaven! the effect of special grace.  It forbids doubt and examination; it “forbids a man the right to exercise his reason; it deprives him of the liberty of thinking, and degrades him into a bearded baby.

This faith vanishes when a man reasons; this virtue cannot sustain a tranquil scrutiny.  And this is the reason why all thorough going Christians are naturally, and, consequently, the enemies of science.  This miraculous faith, which “believeth all things,” is not given to persons enlightened by science and reflection, and accustomed to think.  It is not given but to those who are afraid to think, lest they should offend God.