bases belief in God on "the universal display of himself in the works
of the creation and by that repugnance we feel in ourselves to bad
actions, and disposition to do good ones." This exaltation of the
moral nature of man to be the foundation of theistic religion, though
now familiar, was a hundred years ago a new affirmation; it has led
on a conception of deity subversive of last-century deism, it has
steadily humanized religion, and its ultimate philosophical and
ethical results have not yet been reached.



CHAPTER I - THE AUTHOR'S PROFESSION OF FAITH.

IT has been my intention, for several years past, to publish my
thoughts upon religion; I am well aware of the difficulties that
attend the subject, and from that consideration, had reserved it to a
more advanced period of life. I intended it to be the last offering I
should make to my fellow-citizens of all nations, and that at a time
when the purity of the motive that induced me to it could not admit
of a question, even by those who might disapprove the work.

The circumstance that has now taken place in France, of the total
abolition of the whole national order of priesthood, and of
everything appertaining to compulsive systems of religion, and
compulsive articles of faith, has not only precipitated my intention,
but rendered a work of this kind exceedingly necessary, lest, in the
general wreck of superstition, of false systems of government, and
false theology, we lose sight of morality, of humanity, and of the
theology that is true.